Southwestern school district affected by cyberattack
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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A Jamestown-area school district fell victim to a "cyber security incident" in December, the Southwestern Central School District said Friday.
The district's software was hacked by an unauthorized party, which gained access to customer data using a "compromised set of credentials from one of its support engineers." The school's service provider, PowerSchool, became aware on Dec. 28, 2024.
Information on the software included names of current and former students as well as teachers, contact information, date of birth, limited medical information, social security numbers and other information. There is no evidence to suggest that banking information was involved. A final investigation report said that the data was pulled between Dec. 19 and Dec. 23. The last activity was on the morning of Dec. 28.
PowerSchool said Friday that it is "taking further steps to strengthen the security of its systems." It has also informed the school district that it will provide complimentary credit identity protection services to those affected, along with credit monitoring services.
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Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here.