Thousands of Chicago-area students impacted by data breach
Names, addresses, contact information for parents or guardians and social security numbers of some former students were exposed
WINNETKA, Ill. (WLS) -- A data breach is impacting millions of students across the country, including many in Chicago's suburbs.
New Trier students are among those affected.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
New Trier officials say hackers targeted the software used by vendor PowerSchool, which stores students' grades and personal information.
Thirty-five thousand current and former New Trier students were impacted.
Names, addresses, contact information for parents or guardians and the social security numbers of some former students were exposed.
The company targeted says it does not believe the information has been shared, but the breach is still under investigation.
The school's chief technology officer Michael Marassa said in a letter to parents, "New Trier is reviewing our extensive data protection tools, policies, and agreements with vendors that store information related to our students to make sure we continue to employ the strongest possible information security protections. We are collaborating closely with other impacted school districts and leveraging our membership in both statewide and national educational technology organizations to ensure we have taken every possible step in responding to the data breach."
There are also reports of similar activity at Lisle School District 202 and Mundelein School District 120.
Elena Cutri said she's concerned about her kids' information getting into the wrong hands.
She has three kids at York High School in Elmhurst District 205, and, like all parents in the district, she received a notice that someone has breached the digital platform PowerSchool, used by more than 20,000 districts around the country, affecting some 50 million families.
"It's just an unfortunate reality now that we're used to it. It just feels different when it has to do with our kids' information," Cutri said.
The Elmhurst school district notice reassures parents, "We are closely monitoring the situation, attending webinars with PowerSchool and following all posted updates."
The district has 13 schools and more than 8,000 students. It's one of many districts in the state who use the PowerSchool platform, and are potentially affected by the data. Experts say families should act quickly to protect themselves.
"The first steps that we have to take are to thwart any further risk. So, contact the credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and, regardless of the age of the person whose information was compromised, and put a stop on any ability to open up further credit lines," said Dave Stolarek, with PSM Partners.
Cyber security companies report a rise in data breaches in school districts lately.
"Oftentimes, once they infiltrate a school district, they will then try to expand and infiltrate other organizations. And, they potentially have a large amount of accounts and email addresses they would be able to use that for," said Andrew Von Ramin Mapp, with Cyber Centaurs.
It's enough to have many parents worried.
"For it to be such a big attack, not knowing what they're going to do with the information, it's really disconcerting," Cutri said.
PowerSchool has assured school districts they are working with the FBI and also working to strengthen their security.
In a statement Friday, a PowerSchool spokesperson said:
"On December 28, 2024, we became aware of a potential cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool SIS information through one of our community-focused customer portals, PowerSource. PowerSchool is not experiencing, nor expects to experience, any operational disruption and continues to provide services as normal to our customers.
"As soon as we learned of the incident, we immediately engaged our cybersecurity response protocols and mobilized a cross-functional response team, including senior leadership and third-party cybersecurity experts.
"PowerSchool is committed to protecting the security and integrity of our applications. We take our responsibility to protect student data privacy and act responsibly as data processors extremely seriously.
"PowerSchool is committed to providing affected customers, families, and educators with the resources and support they may need as we work through this together."
