Parents, students, teachers and administrators across North America are fearing what could be the biggest data breach of 2025: a breach of the network of a cloud-based service that stores detailed data on millions of students and school staff.
The hack, which came to light earlier this month, affected PowerSchool, a Folsom, California-based company that provides cloud-based software to about 16,000 elementary schools worldwide. The schools serve 60 million students and employ an unknown number of teachers. In addition to providing software for administration, grading and other functions, PowerSchool stores personal data for students and teachers, with much of that data including Social Security numbers, medical information and home addresses.
On January 7, PowerSchool revealed that two weeks earlier it had suffered a network intrusion that resulted in the “unauthorized export of customers' personal information” stored in PowerSchool's Student Information System (SIS) through PowerSource, a customer support portal. Stolen information included individuals' names, contact information, dates of birth, medical alert information, Social Security numbers, and unspecified “other related information.”
Since then, schools in the US and Canada have reported the devastating effects. On Monday, for example, the Toronto District School Board notified parents, students and former students that the breach exposed sensitive information of all students in the district between 1985 and 2024. The stolen data varied depending on the year the students were enrolled, but the stolen information included:
- First, middle and last name
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Health card number
- Level and school information
- Start/end date as a student
- Ontario education number
- EQAO accommodation information
- Medical information (i.e. allergies, conditions, injuries)
- Home addresses
- Home telephone numbers
- TDSB student number
- TDSB email address
- Information about First Nations, Métis and Inuit
- Residence status
- Head/Vice Head Notes (including discipline notes)
