Ontario French school board says cyberattack exposed personal information of students and staff

An Ontario French public school board says a cyberattack that disrupted phone and internet services also resulted in a breach of personal information affecting all its students as well as current and former staff. 

On Nov. 14, Conseil scolaire Viamonde said that a hack on Oct. 17 resulted in the exposure of information including social insurance numbers and mailing addresses for people who worked for the board between 2002 and 2024. 

The board, which has offices in Toronto and Welland, Ont., said it will provide affected workers with two years of credit monitoring services. 

The hack also affected all current students, the board said in an email to parents and guardians, and in a statement on its website. 

The board operates 57 elementary and secondary schools in southwest and central Ontario, including École élémentaire Pavillon de la jeunesse and École secondaire Georges- P.-Vanier in Hamilton, École élémentaire Renaissance in Burlington and École secondaire Franco-Niagara in Welland. 

Students' names, birthdays, attendance information and school registration number were among the information cybercriminals may have accessed, the board said. 

The board also provided a list of school years in which former students of specific schools may have also been affected. Conseil scolaire Viamonde said it is not providing credit monitoring to students because people under 18 are ineligible, and students' exposure was more limited than that of staff. 

The board said on its website there was no indication that students' home addresses were exposed. 

The hack caused a phone and internet outage across the board for several days, a spokesperson told CBC Hamilton in an email, but emails and other applications were usable using external internet connections. 

The spokesperson said during the outage "learning continued with minimal to no disruptions" in classrooms.

The board spokesperson declined to say how the attack occurred, saying "once the investigation is complete and we have a better understanding of what has happened, we will develop a strategy to strengthen our cybersecurity."

They did not respond to questions about how many students and staff in Hamilton and Niagara were affected, nor if the attackers asked for a ransom to be paid.