Hundreds of thousands of N.L. students, teachers had info stolen in cyberattack, says department
Education department issues update on late December cyberattack
Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Education says the private information of hundreds of thousands of students and teachers, dating back decades, has been stolen by hackers.
In a news release sent Tuesday morning by Lynn Robinson, a media relations manager with the department, said the information of more than 270,000 students, dating back to 1995, was accessed by cyberthieves.
"In addition to the individual's name, information accessed may include contact information, date of birth, MCP numbers, medical alert information, custodial alert information, and other related information," the news release said.
The department said about 75 per cent of the stolen student data belongs to people who are no longer in the K-12 system.
The release also said hackers accessed the information of more than 14,000 teachers, dating back to 2010.
"About 70 per cent of the teacher information involved includes some combination of name, email address, and phone number. A small number of medical care plan (MCP) numbers and 749 social insurance numbers of teachers were included in the data that was accessed," the message said.
The Department of Education said it will provide individual notifications to the 749 individuals who had a SIN involved beginning this week.
"PowerSchool will offer two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was accessed, and two years of complimentary credit monitoring services to all individuals whose information was accessed and have reached the age of majority," said the release. "PowerSchool will offer these services regardless of whether the individual's SIN was involved. Further information on credit monitoring and identity protection services will be provided in the coming weeks."
The news release is an update to an ongoing investigation into what the provincial government calls a cyber security incident — one they said affects students and staff in the English, French, Indigenous and private school systems.
On Jan. 8, the department said hackers had accessed PowerSchool, a data management software used in the province's K-12 system.
At the time, the Department of Education said PowerSchool became aware of a potential cyber security incident on Dec. 28. The company notified the province of the incident on Jan. 7.
The breach affected schools across North America.
Krista Lynn Howell, the province's education minister, said at the time that PowerSchool had identified how the data was accessed, shut down the account, reset passwords and implemented additional security measures.
Tuesday's news release said they're still analyzing student data, and there will be more updates coming.
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