Toys are seen from a window outside the Providence Public School Department on Westminster Street. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
The Providence Public School Department (PPSD) is providing free credit monitoring to approximately 12,000 current and former employees who may have had their personal data — like names, addresses and Social Security numbers — exposed in a recent breach of the school district’s network.
The letter came three weeks after ransomware group Medusa took credit for the hack and demanded $1 million on Sept. 16. Although the district initially acknowledged that “irregular activity” occurred on its network on Sept. 11, it did not use the term “unauthorized access” until a letter to the community on Sept. 25 — the same day the hackers claimed to have published the allegedly stolen data when the ransom went unpaid…