By KEVIN BERGER
The Prairie Spirit School Division is among the numerous school districts across Canada that have been affected by a “cybersecurity incident” involving a third-party application that is used to store student and staff information.
The U.S.-based student information software provider known as PowerSchool reportedly informed school boards in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Maritimes last week that it became aware of the incident involving unauthorized access to Student Information Services data on December 28.
In a letter that was posed to Prairie Spirit’s website on Friday, January 10, the division confirmed that some of its data was involved in the data breach.
Prairie Spirit used PowerSchool as a third-party provider for the management of school division data from 2009 to 2022.
The affected data includes parent, student and teacher contact information with elements such as names and addresses, the letter states.
While the company reportedly does not anticipate the data will be shared or made public, it is taking all appropriate steps to prevent further unauthorized access or misuse of the data involved.
PowerSchool will also provide more information and resources as needed, including credit monitoring or identity protection services.
The division indicated that it will share further updates from PowerSchool with Prairie Spirit staff and families as it becomes available, adding that no further action is required by parents or staff at this time.
“We recognize the critical importance of protecting personal information, and we want to assure you that this matter is being treated with the utmost urgency,” Prairie Spirit states in the letter.