Late last year an unauthorized entity gained access to Nome Public School’s (NPS) data as part of a larger breach of the software company PowerSchool. NPS was notified of the breach on Jan 7.
PowerSchool said personally identifiable information like Social Security numbers and medical information may have been accessed. District Superintendent, Jamie Burgess, said IT Director, Jim Shreve, was immediately put into action following the breach.
“My director has gone through and scrubbed all students' Social Security numbers out of our PowerSchool database at this point in time,” Burgess confirmed.
Burgess said the district collects employee’s Social Security numbers for a report the State of Alaska requires for all teachers, counselors, administrators and support staff each fall.
“So we assume that everybody that was employed with us would be impacted,” Burgess said.
But Burgess said the risk isn’t just for current staff and students.
“It’s all of the historical information that you know, graduated, former students, former staff,” she said.
Following the incident, PowerSchool offered two years of identity protection services to anyone involved in the breach. Burgess said the district is available to help those who have not yet been contacted to sign up for the complimentary service.
