Alamance-Burlington school system officials have alerted parents, teachers, and students Thursday afternoon of a national security breach involving one of the companies used by the school system for student information.
According to the school system, PowerSchool informed N.C. Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday of a cybersecurity incident, dating to December 19 -28, 2024, “involving unauthorized access to student and teacher data.”
According to the company, “the data breach occurred when the credentials of a PowerSchool contract employee were compromised.” According to the company, the “threat has been contained and the compromised data was not shared and has been destroyed.”
Nonetheless, the California-based company says it is “working with law enforcement to monitor the dark web for any data exposure.”
Some other states affected by the same cybersecurity breach have told their parents, teachers, and students that “personally identifiable information had been compromised.”
ABSS emphasized it could not have avoided the breach. Included in a statement from the school system, is this: “It is important to stress that there is nothing that Alamance-Burlington School System or NCDPI could have done to avoid this cybersecurity incident. Neither our schools nor DPI have administrative access to the maintenance tunnel where the breach occurred.”
