Almost 1.5 million college students — each present and former — at Canada’s largest faculty board are amongst those that have been impacted by the data breach of PowerSchool, utilized by faculties throughout North America to retailer scholar and employees information.
In line with an electronic mail from a Toronto District School Board spokesperson, roughly 1.49 million college students have been impacted.
“I can verify roughly 1.49 million TDSB college students have been impacted,” stated Emma Moynihan, communications adviser for the college board.
The information was confirmed by the board when International Information inquired about numbers reported by the online news site BleepingComputer, which had obtained data into the scope of the info breach of PowerSchool.
International Information has not independently confirmed the numbers reported by BleepingComputer, which allege the info of greater than 62 million college students and 9.5 million lecturers throughout North America have been impacted.
The report stated among the many largest faculty districts impacted by the breach was the Toronto District College Board, citing roughly the identical variety of college students impacted because the numbers supplied by the college board to International Information.
Different Canadian faculty boards listed included the Peel District College Board and Calgary Board of Training. International Information reached out to each to verify the numbers reported and didn’t hear again from Peel’s board, nevertheless Calgary’s stated it was wanting into the request.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and around the globe, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you once they occur.
The TDSB information impacted by the info breach dates back as far as 1985.
Data akin to well being card numbers, dwelling addresses and telephone numbers for college students who attended a TDSB faculty anytime between 1985 and 2017 could have been impacted, whereas medical data, principal notes and dates of beginning for college students attending between 2017 and December 2024 may additionally be among the many data compromised within the breach.
The college board advised International Information that whereas it didn’t have complete numbers for employees impacted, it stated first, center and final names, worker numbers and TDSB electronic mail addresses of some employees have been impacted.
It additionally stated these whose information could have been accessed or acquired embody lecturers, principals, workplace employees, superintendents, steerage counsellors and classroom assist employees like academic assistants.
The PowerSchool information breach occurred between Dec. 22 and 28, with information from faculties in a number of provinces affected.
The U.S.-based supplier of cloud software program stated on its web site that some “personally identifiable data,” akin to social safety numbers and medical data “was concerned” within the breach and was working with “urgency” to determine these impacted.
Canada’s privateness commissioner, Philippe Dufresne, announced last week he was communicating with the corporate in response to the info breach, including this previous Monday he was “involved” concerning the potential influence that the incident might have on private data of scholars throughout the nation.
He stated his workplace is working to acquire extra data concerning the breach and likewise present PowerSchool details about its breach response and reporting necessities below Canada’s privateness laws.
In a press release to International Information, PowerSchool stated it acknowledged the “significance of this incident and are sincerely regretful that it occurred,” and has labored to prioritize transparency and direct communication with its prospects.
Requested to verify if the numbers reported within the BleepingComputer put up have been correct, the corporate stated it didn’t “intend to downplay the numbers reported on this article,” nevertheless it confused it expects nearly all of prospects impacted, “in truth, greater than three quarters,” didn’t have social safety numbers exfiltrated.
The corporate added it could offer two years of complimentary identification safety providers and two years of complimentary credit score monitoring providers for all relevant college students whose data was concerned.
— with recordsdata from The Canadian Press
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
Source link