[BreachExchange] Data breach compromises students' personal information in dozens of CNY school districts

[Destry Winant]

https://cnycentral.com/news/local/data-breach-compromises-students-personal-information-in-dozens-of-cny-school-districts

SYRACUSE, NY — Up to a dozen school districts in Central New York,
including North Syracuse and Fayetteville-Manlius, have been affected
by a Pearson data breach.

Pearson is a London-based firm that’s one of the largest publishers of
print and digital textbooks. Their software monitors kids’ reading and
writing scores all the way into high school.

A spokesperson explained they’re informing all schools impacted by the
breach and leaving it to those schools to inform their communities.

The company claims only names, addresses and dates of birth were compromised.

A spokesperson for Pearson says that their systems were not the
original target and there is no evidence that any student data was
misused.

The cyber-attack was a topic of conversation with congressman John
Katko and Homeland Security Reps in Syracuse on Friday.

"How many more do we not know about? How many more do we have to have
before we realize that we have to prioritize it from a funding
standpoint but also from also an overall priority stand point,” Katko
said about the data breaches.

Katko has introduced two bills to tackle the cyber attacks.

The first would forces businesses and government to share information
through an advisory team.

The second funds a grant program to bring more money to cities that
need to strengthen cyber-security systems.

“We can never let our guard down because if we do, we could have a
catastrophic event,” Katko said.

Pearson is now offering free credit monitoring services for victims of
the data breach.