The Washington, D.C., area school system is one of the 20 largest school districts in the U.S., with 201 schools and centers. The school system discovered an attack on its network on Aug. 14, and officials estimate that the incident impacted about 2.5 percent (or 4,500) of its 180,000 user accounts. The bulk of the affected accounts belonged to staff, and all employees were advised to reset their passwords. This week, students will get assistance resetting their own passwords as well.
On Aug. 26, school officials said they’d discovered cyber attackers may have published online “some personal information” that possibly includes “identification details.”
The school system is working to determine exactly what information was compromised. At that point, it will alert affected individuals. Getting a full understanding of the impact will, however, involve a multiweek data review. In the meantime, officials said staff and students will all be offered free credit monitoring and identity protection from Experian, and there is more information about how to sign up forthcoming.
Prince George’s County Public Schools has also recommended that employees and students monitor their own financial statements and accounts. One of the best ways to do this is by either setting up fraud alerts with the three major credit bureaus or by having those bureaus freeze their credit. Credit freezes are free, as are fraud alerts for a certain amount of time.
Prince George’s County Public Schools has also advised parties who are potentially affected to stay alert against potential phishing messages that could purport to be from school staff.
