San Diego Unified School District

Social security numbers of some SDUSD students may have been accessed in data breach

PowerSchool — the information system provider the district uses — was the target of a cybersecurity incident, in which an unauthorized user downloaded some San Diego Unified student data.

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According to the district, it uses an information system provider called PowerSchool. The provider told the district it was the target of a cybersecurity incident discovered on Dec. 28 and that some student data was downloaded by an unauthorized user.

Some students in the San Diego Unified School District may have had their contact information and even social security numbers compromised in a data breach that appeared to be impacting schools nationwide, the district said Friday.

San Diego's largest school district learned of the cybersecurity incident on Tuesday and alerted families that night. In an email, the district said PowerSchool — its information system provider — was the target of an attack, discovered on Dec. 28, in which an unauthorized user downloaded some SDUSD student data. It was unclear at the time what type of data was accessed.

According to the district, PowerSchool later said the compromised data included mainly contact information like names, addresses and phone numbers. Social security numbers, non-detailed medical condition information and other personal details of some students could have also been accessed, the district added.

"PowerSchool is working with urgency to complete their investigation and determine whether [personally identifiable information] belonging to our students was included," W. Drew Rowlands, San Diego Unified's deputy superintendent of operations, wrote in part of Friday's email update to families.

Rowlands said PowerSchool would offer support such as credit monitoring or identity protection services to the families of students impacted by the release of sensitive information.

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