A nationwide data breach has affected multiple local school districts.
The online portal PowerSchool reported a security breach to its servers on Dec. 28, 2024. At least 10 Long Island school districts have released information regarding the data breach, according to published reports.PowerSchool is used by over 18,000 school districts and 60 million students in over 90 countries, according to its website.
The list of school districts known to have been affected by the data breach includes Jericho, Hicksville, Glen Cove, West Hempstead, Lynbrook, Middle Country, Massapequa, Smithtown Central, Nassau BOCES, and Uniondale, according to published reports.
“We became aware of a potential cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool Student Information System information through one of our community-focused customer portals, PowerSource,” PowerSchool said in a statement Monday about the December incident. “PowerSchool is not experiencing, nor does it expect to experience, any operational disruption and continues to provide services as normal to our customers.”
“We have been assured by PowerSchool and independent third-party experts that the vulnerability has been fully remediated,” Nassau BOCES said in a statement released Jan. 10.
The Hicksville School District provided its community members with reassurance and ways to be better protected from cyber security threats.
The Glen Cover City School District mandated a districtwide password reset while also reassuring the community about the breach.
“We take all matters involving data privacy very seriously,” the district said in a Jan. 9 statement. “We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of all student and staff information. Our primary focus will always be the safety of our students and staff.”
PowerSchool said it will continue to send out updates on the situation as news comes out.
