Total student, teacher data theft reported from PowerSchool hack

TechCrunch reports that numerous U.S. school districts, including the Menlo Park City School District in California, disclosed having all data from current and former students and faculty members compromised following the December cyberattack against major global education software provider PowerSchool's student information systems.

All demographic information belonging to students and teachers dating back to a school district with almost 9,000 pupils' initial installation of PowerSchool have also been accessed as a result of the hack, according to a source close to the matter, who noted PowerSchool's lack of multi-factor authentication and other standard security defenses. On the other hand, California's Rancho Santa Fe School District reported having its faculty's PowerSchool credentials impacted by the incident. Assertions about the lack of MFA have been refuted by PowerSchool spokesperson Beth Keebler, who also emphasized customer differences in SIS-stored information and data-retention policies. Meanwhile, other school districts previously served by PowerSchool were noted by RootED Solutions CEO Mark Racine to have also been affected, indicating that the attack's toll may be significantly higher than previously thought.