While hundreds of school district officials around the country are ringing alarm bells, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid has been silent this week about explosive news that cybercriminals hacked the “Student Information System” database managed by a global technology contractor, PowerSchool Holdings Inc., stealing highly sensitive student information, including names, addresses, grades, attendance, enrollment, parent names, Social Security numbers, and medical records, as well as teacher information.
FBI’s cybersecurity teams are investigating the hacking. According to accounts of the cyber-steal, PowerSchool, based in Folsom, Calif., paid a “ransom” to the hackers, who promised to delete the data. Technology experts worldwide have been scouring the Dark Web this past week to see if the guarantee holds true. Schools from Maine to California have been notifying their communities about the breach’s impact on their school districts.
The silence by the leaders at Fairfax County Public Schools raises many unanswered questions for parents, staff and community members and resurrects concerns about transparency in a school district with a massive $3.8 billion budget and salaries for executives on the superintendent’s team that run over $200,000. In a terse statement, Fairfax County Public Schools spokeswoman Julie Allen said the school’s Student Information System, known as “SIS,” wasn’t impacted…