Data Breach involving application used at NNDSB

By Richard Coffin

The Near North District School Board (NNDSB) says PowerSchool, an application it and many other boards use to store student information and some staff information, experienced a data breach over the holidays. 

In a letter to parents, board officials say they’re working with PowerSchool to investigate the incident and find out what personal information may have been affected.  

“On Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, PowerSchool notified the board and other school boards in Ontario and across North America that they had experienced a data breach between Dec. 22-28, 2024,” reads the letter. “Our cybersecurity team promptly activated our response plan, taking immediate steps to ensure that our critical systems remain operational.”

Officials say they were told the data accessed by an unauthorized user has been deleted and no copies of the data were posted online.  

The board says it will share what information was impacted when it becomes known and they continue to work with the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner. 

Below is NNDSB’s full letter to parents:

Dear Parents and Guardians,
We wanted to share an important update about a cyber incident experienced by
Near North District School Board (NNDSB) involving PowerSchool – the
application used by NNDSB and many school boards across North America to
store a range of student information and a limited amount of staff information.
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, PowerSchool notified the board and other school
boards in Ontario and across North America that they had experienced a data
breach between Dec. 22-28, 2024.

Our cybersecurity team promptly activated our response plan, taking immediate
steps to ensure that our critical systems remain operational.
Working with PowerSchool, we are conducting a thorough investigation to
understand the nature of the incident and what personal information may have
been affected. At this point in time, we are still assessing the exact information
that may have been accessed or exported from the application. PowerSchool has
informed us that it has received confirmation that the data accessed by an
unauthorized user has been deleted and that no copies of this data were posted
online.

When we determine what personal information has been impacted, we will let
you know as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have proactively notified the
Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner of this incident.

We know this news may be concerning, but please know that we are doing
everything possible to learn more from PowerSchool about what occurred and
will share that information with you.
Many of you will have questions as a result of this news, but given the ongoing
investigation into what occurred, we do not yet have more information to share at
this time.

We will continue to update the community as more information becomes
available.
Sincerely,
Near North District School Board

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