Security breach at Florida school district exposed personal identifying info of more than 250 students
The information may have included a student’s name, date of birth, student ID and State ID, which might correspond to their social security number
Fox News | By Landon Mion | September 24, 2023
A Florida school district that suffered a cybersecurity breach earlier this month that exposed the personal information of more than 250 students revealed that the information may have included State IDs.
Hillsborough County Public Schools had a forensic review conducted which determined that an administrative file from the 2021-2022 academic year containing information on 254 students was accessed without authorization.
The review concluded that the information may have included a student’s name, date of birth, district student ID and State ID, which could correspond to the student’s social security number and school nurse visit information from that school year.
District officials said these details were communicated to parents on Friday and that the district is providing complimentary identity protection services for affected students for one year, according to Fox 13.
Earlier this month when the district discovered some of its systems had been impacted by a security breach, Interim Superintendent Van Ayres wrote in an email to parents that it did not appear any student data was accessed.
The district said it is providing complimentary identity protection services for affected students for one year. (iStock)
“The district’s monitoring systems effectively prevented widespread disruption,” Ayres wrote at the time. Additionally, we took offline a number of our network connected systems as a preventative measure. Over the weekend, our Information Technology Services division, along with external experts and consultants, worked tirelessly to restore full function to our core operational systems and collect additional data for further investigation. The forensic investigation continues as we determine more about how this incident occurred and identify what data, if any, was accessed from HCPS systems … At this point in the forensic review, we have no indication that there was any unauthorized access to data stored in our student information system.”
