Data breach at New Trier High School exposed records of thousands of students and graduates
CHICAGO (CBS) -- New Trier High School in the northern suburbs is warning families about a security breach that exposed the records of thousands of current and former students.
On Tuesday, the school's student information system "PowerSchool" notified officials of a data breach. Someone was able to exploit a PowerSchool technical support staffer's account to access records from 18,000 school districts last month, including New Trier, according to an email to New Trier families.
"We are extremely disappointed in this security lapse and are in constant communication with PowerSchool to understand how this could have happened and what they are doing to prevent future incidents," school officials said.
New Trier officials said they determined hackers might have accessed about 35,000 records of current and former students – including names, addresses, school ID numbers, and birthdates. The information also included the names and phone numbers of students parents or guardians.
The records that were accessed did not include grades, medical or financial information, or Social Security numbers for current students.
For some New Trier alums who graduated before 2017, Social Security numbers might have been accessed, and the district is working with PowerSchool to contact them individually with additional information.
"PowerSchool has told its customers that they do not anticipate the data being shared or made public, and that they believe it has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination," New Trier officials said.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is investigating the data breach, and is expected to release a report later this month with more details on the potential impact of the incident.
PowerSchool also is stepping up its security practices, including requiring updated credentials for its employees, and restricting access to its technical support tools.