Over the span of December 19 through December 28, Powerschool, a education system that was breached in Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS,) which caused numerous problems on the site like stolen information, or inability to access Powerschool. FCPS uses Schoology as its learning management system for assignments, tests, student information and grading.
The Student Information System (SIS) was breached and data was taken. This nationwide breach occurred across different districts throughout the country, including FCPS. While the data breach was not very personal or dangerous information, Powerschool serves roughly 60 million students and educators nationwide, so this is a concerning issue for many, as different information is in the SIS depending on the school or county.
The hacker managed to delete the stolen information files before the issue was identified, so the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now conducting investigations to confirm what data was stolen and the extent of the breach.
The hackers infiltrated the SIS using stolen credentials. Some examples include admin, teachers, parents, students in order to keep all information about their students and staff in one remote place. This breach happened over FCPS’s winter break, so the issue was not resolved until winter break had ended, causing Powerschool and Schoology to be down for many users.
When the hack was engineered, it appeared to be a network break in, which means it was a planned attack and they were able to bypass the security measures utilized by Powerschool. Representatives at Powerschool confirmed that they are confident that the remaining data is safe, and won’t be made public.
While the breach is contained, it is concerning that the breach went unnoticed over the break and was not discovered until school resumed for the new year.
A nationwide breach to a resource as highly utilized as Powerschool is still unsettling for those involved.
Linganore High School (LHS) sophomore Reva Hagy voiced her outlook on the breach, and how she believes that Schoology can be inconsistent with its operation.
“Recently Schoology has had a lot of issues, and a lot of problems that I [believe] should be resolved [as quickly as possible],” said Hagy.
LHS students experienced minor issues due to the breach; Schoology was unable to be accessed for the first few hours of the day, for some students and staff. Overall, the problem appears to have been resolved as Powerschool has been back up and running.