Russell County USD 407 and PowerSchool Data Breach Update

Early this year, Russell County USD 407 was informed of a data breach of PowerSchool, a school software provider, that impacted information of some students and faculty and staff in USD 407. An update has been provided by PowerSchool and USD 407 regarding the breach and details as to what has been happening behind the scenes.

PowerSchool has been made aware of threats made to multiple school districts trying to extort them using the data that was extracted in the breach in December of 2024. Both PowerSchool and USD 407 are taking this very seriously as they are working with cybersecurity experts and informed law enforcement in both Canada and the United States.

Also, PowerSchool made the decision to pay a ransom because they believed it to be in the best interest of their customers and the students and communities they serve. As is always the case with these situations, there is a risk that the bad actors would not delete the data they stole, despite assurances and evidence that were provided to PowerSchool.

PowerSchool has offered credit monitoring and identity protection services for a period of two years to students and USD 407 faculty and staff, even if they weren’t individually affected. They encourage those who were offered services to take advantage of them.

Here is the link to those services provided by the update: https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/notice-of-united-states-data-breach/