Old Rochester Among Massachusetts Schools Cyberattacked via PowerSchool

Parents, students, and staff at the Old Rochester school district have been informed that PowerSchool, an external vendor that serves as a portal for student grades and other information, suffered a data breach in late December.

PowerSchool notified the Old Rochester Regional School District on Tuesday that the district was potentially affected, a breach later confirmed by the district's internal tech team. IT staff at O.R.R. identified a breach in the school district's server that occurred a few days before Christmas.

PowerSchool allegedly paid a ransom to the hackers to prevent the public release of students' information and does not believe the stolen data will be shared or made public. According to a memo sent to Old Rochester families, PowerSchool also believes the information has been deleted.

"We are taking this matter extremely seriously. We share your deep concern about unauthorized access to confidential information about students and staff. We are further upset by PowerSchool’s unacceptable 10-day delay in notifying us about the breach," said Old Rochester Superintendent Michael Nelson.

"PowerSchool has confirmed that the stolen data primarily contained details such as names and addresses. Our school system does not store Social Security numbers."

Students, parents, and staff will be required to change their passwords to something more complex to help prevent future cyberattacks.

PowerSchool serves as a portal that stores all student grades and assignments. Parents can monitor students' performance and grades in real time as they are updated by teachers.

Several other school districts across Massachusetts were also affected by the PowerSchool data breach.

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