News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
PowerSchool, a software used by Putnam County Schools, the latest victim of hacking.
Putnam County Schools Technology Supervisor Johnny Sloan said PowerSchool is a cloud-based software that many school districts use to store student records, schedules, teacher licenses, and other personal information. Sloan said PowerSchool was breached after compromised credentials were obtained by a hacker. Sloan said since the incident the school system began an internal investigation to see if the school system has been impacted.
“We know from the information that they showed via support that you know what to look for and yes we were impacted,” Sloan said. “Again we are still waiting for a final report from them to confirm but we have determined via review of the logs that yes, we were impacted in the data breach as well.”
Sloan said fortunately the school system removed student social security numbers within the software a few years ago. Sloan said the school system has sent out notifications to parents and will continue to provide updates as they obtain more information on the incident.
“Something PowerSchool assured their customer base and we heard this ourselves was they will provide coordination with those impacted and provide support resources that would include credit monitoring and identity protection services if its applicable for individuals whose data may be involved,” Sloan said.
Sloan said even though the school system was not personally attacked, the school system will evaluate internal practices. Sloan said once the news broke he did not sleep well for the next couple of nights as he was worried about what possible damage could have been done.
“This particular in the K-12 education space from a provider that has such a huge customer base is somewhat surprising,” Sloan said. “That’s why we are very anxiously awaiting some additional feedback from PowerSchool but yes, it is frustrating and it is challenging.”
Sloan said the school system has to have software like PowerSchool to meet Tennessee Department of Education reporting requirements. Sloan said it is too early to tell if the school system will continue to use PowerSchool or consider using a different software.
