A pair of Manitoba school divisions are reporting a data breach of their student information system.
According to the Louis Riel and Portage la Prairie School Divisions, PowerSchool – a third-party student information system provider – was the target of a cybersecurity incident in late December.
The school divisions added that some of their data was accessed, including some specific personal information of students and the name and email addresses of staff.
They emphasized that PowerSchool, not the divisions, was the target of the incident.
The school divisions noted that PowerSchool has worked with cybersecurity experts to resolve the situation, adding that the accessed data has now been deleted.
“Furthermore, PowerSchool has confidence that the data was not copied or uploaded elsewhere,” a letter from the LRSD said.
“PowerSchool is actively engaged with cybersecurity professionals to continue to monitor this event.”
No other LRSD or Portage la Prairie School Division systems or data was accessed or compromised in this breach.
“Please be assured that the safety and security of our data—particularly the information of your children and of our staff is of paramount importance to us and to PowerSchool,” Portage la Prairie School Division said.
“We regret that this has occurred, and we will continue to collaborate on this matter.”
The St. James-Assiniboia School Division confirmed that its student data was not impacted by this incident.