ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A cybersecurity attack on a software system that schools internationally use is having local impacts. It’s called PowerSchool, and the St. Johns County School district announced that some students may have become victims of the breach.
On Tuesday night, some parents in St. Johns County got a letter from the school district saying someone got access to their private information.
It said at least 50 million students worldwide were affected by this, but it’s unclear at this time how many locals were impacted.
“Schools especially hold a wealth of sensitive student and staff data, and it makes them prime targets for cyberattacks as we’re seeing,” Tech expert Craig Agranoff told Action News Jax..
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The St, Johns County School District said that sensitive data may be out there after its software vendor was breached.
The email to parents said information from students was taken: names, contact info, and even Social Security numbers.
This has some locals worried.
“My head is spinning, I mean it’s crazy,” St. Johns resident Steve Sweeney said.
The district said it was testing PowerSchool’s student information system at the time of the incident. PowerSchool said it learned about the breach in December and told the school district three weeks ago.
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“Parents, teachers, students – they all place their trust in school systems like this to safeguard their personal information and when a breach like this occurs, it not only puts their identity at risk, but it erodes confidence in the institutions meant to protect them and that’s never a good thing,” Agranoff said.
Agranoff said this happens more often than people think, and people should understand the risks of cyberattacks.
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“They save the data and as the students get older, they have information on them, and then they can utilize it or sell it on the black market to other people who might be able to use it,” Agranoff said. “Shame on this system for not safeguarding their personal information.”
PowerSchool is offering two years of free identity protection to minor students whose information was involved.
Agranoff said parents should monitor their credit and identity reports and change passwords.
“Certainly, you should change your passwords and even tell your kids to change the passwords that they use on their TikTok or their Xbox or whatever else they’re using just to be safe,” Agranoff said.
Action News Jax reached out to several local school districts to see if they were impacted by the breach.
So far, only Duval County Public Schools has responded. A spokesperson said DCPS was not impacted.
We are still waiting to learn why the St. Johns County School District took three weeks to send the information out.
PowerSchool has advised that it is not aware of any identity theft attributable to this incident.
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