The PowerSchool data breach affected students and staff in Washington

WASHINGTON. A “cybersecurity incident” at the PowerSchool student information website resulted in the leak of personally identifiable information to an “unauthorized third party,” according to a Washington school district.

In a letter sent to district families Monday, Washington Superintendent Willie Stone said the compromised data contained sensitive information about students and staff.

“Unfortunately, PowerSchool has confirmed that data belonging to students and teachers in our district and across the country was affected as a result of this incident,” Stone wrote. “PowerSchool has confirmed that some personal information, such as social security numbers, has been altered.”

According to local media reports in several states, Washington is just one of several schools affected by the hack across the country.

In a statement released Jan. 13, PowerSchool said the incident compromised data exclusively for its customers using PowerSchool SIS, one of its core products that offers cloud-based gradebooks, attendance tracking, demographic data and digital report cards, among a host of other services.

The company does not believe that the unauthorized party still has access.

“PowerSchool is not experiencing and does not expect any disruptions and continues to provide services to our customers as usual,” one of them said. FAQ page. “We have no evidence that other PowerSchool products were affected as a result of this incident or that there is any malware or ongoing unauthorized activity in the PowerSchool environment.”

The company also said it mobilized a “cross-functional response team” after learning of the incident, with internal staff and “third-party cybersecurity experts” investigating.

“We are working to complete our investigation into the incident and are coordinating with districts and schools to provide more information and resources (including credit monitoring or privacy services, if available),” PowerSchool said in a statement.

Washington CSD plans to share news from the company as it comes in, according to Stone’s district letter, which said “the safety and security of all information regarding our students, parents and staff is of the utmost importance to us.”

Asked how many students and staff were affected in Washington, Stone said the district had no information to share as of Wednesday morning.

“While we appreciate and understand the questions we are receiving, PowerSchool and the Washington Community School District have not yet completed their investigation into this incident,” he said in an email. “We are currently working diligently with our cybersecurity experts to determine the exact data affected by this incident, and we will notify people as soon as possible. We thank all parents, students and staff for their patience as we work through this process.”

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