CDSBEO not affected by PowerSchool data breach

KEMPTVILLE – A recent rash of cyberattacks and data breaches have impacted school boards across a number of jurisdictions since Christmas, but the local English-Catholic board is not one of those affected.

Officials with the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario confirmed that it is not affected by the recent PowerSchool Inc. breach, or any other cyberattack.

School boards in six provinces and several U.S. states have reported significant data breaches relating to PowerSchool software, which handles student records management and other functions.

“While CDSBEO utilizes PowerSchool products, including SchoolMessenger and SmartfindExpress, it is important to note that these programs were not compromised by the recent PowerSchool incident,” said CDSBEO spokesperson Amber Laberge adding that the board has tools in place to strengthen its networks to prevent potential data breaches and other cybersecurity issues.

“We also acknowledge that cyber criminals are always changing their techniques, and this presents ongoing challenges to all organizations – including school boards,” she said.

At the board’s January 14 trustee meeting, staff provided an update on its cybersecurity and awareness efforts. Those efforts include year-round internal audits and simulated exercises to identify any potential security vulnerabilities.

Laberge added that the board holds a Cyber Awareness campaign each October to educate staff and students on best practices for internet and network use.

“Our protocols follow provincial and industry data security standards and great effort has been put towards building a secure IT infrastructure,” she continued.

Since 2020, at least 10 school boards in Ontario have reported being hit with a cyberattack. Those attacks have either been a Ransomware attack encrypting information until a fee in Crypto currency is paid, a Distributed Denial of Service attack, which floods a network with internet traffic until it fails, or a direct hack into servers, like the recent Upper Canada District School Board cyberattack.