The Juneau School District says its students’ personal data may have been compromised in a national data breach.
The software company – PowerSchool – initially told the district its system was not breached last week. But further examination by the district’s IT department revealed suspicious activity. PowerSchool then confirmed Juneau’s data had been compromised.
Superintendent Frank Hauser shared the news at a school board meeting Tuesday night.
“After first saying that our Juneau School District product or student information system was not impacted, our PowerSchool rep has now reversed course and said that it was,” he said. “This is a developing situation, and the district has communicated to families the information we have at present.”
PowerSchool is a software used by districts across the nation for things like grades, attendance and homework assignments. It can also store some more confidential and personal information like social security numbers and medical conditions. The Juneau School District has used the software for many years.
The nationwide cybersecurity breach happened late last month. The company discovered that a user had gained unauthorized access to its information using a customer support portal.
Since then, some districts in the country have reported that students’ contact information – things like names and addresses – had been breached along with sensitive data like social security numbers.
Hauser said the district is still waiting to hear back about how much personal information was accessed in Juneau. But, there’s some important information they believe was not compromised.
“The Juneau School District does not collect social security numbers, driver’s license numbers or any credit card information in PowerSchool,” he said.
Hauser said the district will update families and the public as it learns more. Other districts in Alaska had their data compromised too, including the Petersburg School District, Bering Strait School District and Nome Public Schools.