PowerSchool hack: School boards face new ransom demands months after leak
Global News
At least three school boards in Canada are reporting having been contacted for ransom following the PowerSchool data breach in December 2024.
Some Canadian school boards say they’ve been the target of ransom attempts in relation to the massive data breach of PowerSchool, which saw millions of current and former students across the country impacted.
In letters to families on Wednesday, the Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board and Calgary Board of Education said they had been contacted by a “threat actor demanding a ransom.”
Each school board says PowerSchool is not reporting that new information has been accessed, and it’s believed the data being used for ransom is what was obtained in December 2024.
PowerSchool, the U.S.-based company that provides the student information system that was breached, said on Wednesday that it was aware that school boards and districts across North America had been contacted.
“We do not believe this is a new incident, as samples of data match the data previously stolen in December,” the company wrote. “We sincerely regret these developments – it pains us that our customers are being threatened and re-victimized by bad actors.”
It said it had reported the matter to law enforcement in both Canada and the U.S. and was working with customers to support them.
The company said following the December breach that it had paid a ransom, as it believed it would be “in the best interest of our customers.”
The Peel, Toronto and Calgary school boards said in their letters that the company had previously told them the data that had been accessed had been deleted with no copies posted online, but that was not the case.
The company said the incident is currently under investigation and information is limited, but it confirms that local authorities have been notified.
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