INNISFAIL – A senior official with the Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) says his organization was not impacted by the data breach with the U.S.-based PowerSchool platform.
PowerSchool is a student information application and the company identified a cybersecurity breach on Dec. 28 and notified its clients this week.
The breach has impacted school divisions across Canada, the United States and a number of Alberta school divisions, including in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer-based Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, but not the Innisfail-headquartered Chinook’s Edge School Division.
Jason Drent, Chinook’s associate superintendent for learning services, told the Albertan on Thursday, Jan. 9 it has been confirmed by both PowerSchool's forensic investigation and its own independent probe that no CESD data was impacted.
“What we also do is kind of walk backwards and with the little information we do know about how the breach occurred we then can confirm that the supports that we have in place, the protections that we have in place, are actually doing what they're supposed to do,” said Drent. “We are always actively engaged in investigating our security pieces. We need to do that in today's day and age.
“With increasing risks in this environment, it is critically important that as an organization we're always looking at training for our staff, ensuring we have the most up to date security hardware and ensuring our kids and their data is safe.”
Drent told the Albertan that his school division sent out a letter for parents on Thursday, Jan. 9 to let them know there have been “no impacts.
“The responsibility to protect staff and student data is one that we take seriously,” said the letter to parents. “PowerSchool has informed us that they are actively implementing enhanced security measures and are working closely with law enforcement to address the situation.
“We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure personal information, organizational information and our systems remain secure.”
