A widening data breach affecting PowerSchool, a platform used by school boards across Canada, may have compromised student data dating back decades. While investigations are ongoing, experts advise families to take steps to protect themselves against potential identity theft.
The scope of the PowerSchool data breach impacting school boards across the country is widening, with some boards revealing it may involve student data dating back decades. Still, experts say there are steps families can take to protect themselves.A broader understanding of the PowerSchool data breach is emerging, with some school boards revealing that student data dating back decades may be impacted. Still, experts say there are steps families can take to protect themselves.
Officials are working with PowerSchool to determine the extent of the breach, which occurred in late December when a back-end account used to offer school boards technical support with the platform was compromised.Other education ministries and school board leaders have also been revealing what specific data was included in the breach and just how far back it goes.
"PowerSchool has given us assurances that the information that was copied has been deleted," Bird said. "It has not appeared, to our knowledge, online anywhere." With basic info like a student's name, grade and a parental email, a cybercriminal could easily craft a phishing scam to extract credit card info, says Tony Anscombe, who has worked in the cybersecurity sector for the past three decades.
Talk to your kids about the breach so they can watch for anything odd in school emails, like phishing attempts, Anscombe says. When prompted to input personal details for school forms, consider if every field is absolutely necessary to fill in and ask the school about it. "Understanding that our data has value and that we're leaving our value in too many places where it could be stolen, I think, is a really good mindset," Anscombe said.
Security DATA BREACH POWERSCHOOL CYBERSECURITY IDENTITY THEFT STUDENT DATA
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