PowerSchool, a software company used by multiple school districts across northeast Wisconsin, announced they had experienced a cybersecurity attack in their student information system Wednesday.
- Hear from the company after it announced the breach to its customers
- The Howard-Suamico School District wrote in its message regarding the attack that PowerSchool paid a ransom to the unauthorized actor to prevent the data from being released
- PowerSchool did not confirm or deny HSSD's claim regarding a ransom payment to NBC 26
- The Berlin Area School District superintendent says no social security information was accessed in the breach
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
A software company which serves multiple school districts in northeast Wisconsin says they had a cybersecurity breach. I'm your Suamico neighborhood reporter Pari Apostolakos and the Howard-Suamico School District says some of their information was downloaded. But, no financial or social security information was compromised.
In a message sent to its customers Wednesday, national software company PowerSchool says they learned about a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to data in their student information system in late December.
The Howard-Suamico school district is one of multiple in northeast Wisconsin which uses PowerSchool's system. In a message to families, HSSD says information downloaded "May include name, demographics, address, parent/guardian name, email, and phone."
I spoke with Berlin Area Schools Superintendent Emmett Durtschi on the phone Wednesday. He says their district also received a message about the security breach from PowerSchool and their student contact information also could have been accessed, but they don't know for sure.
Once they do, he says families impacted will be contacted directly by the district or the company.
In a statement to our newsroom, PowerSchool writes in part: "We have taken all appropriate steps to prevent the data involved from further unauthorized access or misuse. The incident is contained and we do not anticipate the data being shared or made public. PowerSchool is not experiencing, nor expects to experience, any operational disruption and continues to provide services as normal to our customers."
In the Howard-Suamico school district's message to families Wednesday, they say PowerSchool confirmed to them this was not a ransomware attack, but the company paid a ransom to prevent the data from being released. When we asked PowerSchool to verify this, they did not confirm or deny HSSD's claim.
Superintendent Durtschi in Berlin says he is confident PowerSchool is taking the necessary steps at this point to rectify the situation.
The Howard-Suamico school district tells families there is no action required from them at this time. In Suamico, Pari Apostolakos NBC 26.
