Image Credit: PowerSchool
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
School districts across the state are fighting against a worldwide cybersecurity breach after the software used to house student records was compromised.
A number of Tennessee school districts use PowerSchool, a cloud-based program that allows parents to keep up with student schedules, grades, and attendance through an app.
According to the PowerSchool website, they “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” on December 28, 2024.
Washington County Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Boyd says he found out last week.
“It was specifically targeting student information–that has student information like directory information, academic record, their schedule and so on,” Boyd explained. “And then our employees that utilize PowerSchool like our teachers, not all employees, but the ones that have a reason to be in there … that data was also included.”
PowerSchool is not linked to student social security numbers in Tennessee, but more personal information is included in the system for teachers. That information may have been part of the breach.
For students in Tennessee, Social Security numbers are not linked to PowerSchool. However, for teachers, more sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, may have been involved in the breach.
PowerSchools has confirmed that the data leak has been stopped at this time. They will be working with affected school districts to identify everyone who was directly impacted. Additional security resources such as identity protection and credit monitoring will be provided to those individuals.
“PowerSchool says they have basically addressed the situation and the bad actor that committed the breach. They have indicated that the data has not gone any further. But, we’re going through all of our records, identifying exactly who may have been involved in that breach,” Boyd told News Channel 11.
PowerSchool’s statement regarding the breach can be found on their website at powerschool.com/security/sis-incident.
