The federal privacy surveillance agency has launched an investigation into a cybersecurity violation in a company that stores the personal information of K-12 students throughout Canada.
The privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne said in a statement on Tuesday that the investigation was launched after his office received a Powerschool report based in the United States, which provides the affected software and a complaint about the violation.
Last month, Powerschool told school boards in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nueva Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Prince Eduardo Island, the Northwest Territories and in other places in North America that a data violation at the end of December had exposed the personal information of the students.
Stolen information includes addresses, medical details, qualifications and disciplinary notes. In some cases, the Social Security number of educators and personnel was also taken.
The Toronto District School Board, the largest school board in the country, said in January that the addresses, the health card number, emergency contacts and medical information of more than 1.49 million students may have been stolen.
Dufresne says that his “immediate approach” is to ensure that Powers School is taking measures to reduce the risk for those affected by rape and prevent this from happening again.
“My office has had discussions with Powerschool representatives and remains actively committed to this matter to ensure that the organization is taking appropriate measures to respond to violation,” he said in the statement.
Powerschool provides cloud-based software to dozens of K-12 Canadian school boards to administer students’ information and communications. Following data violation, the company is offering two years of protection against identity theft and credit monitoring of affected persons.
Private organizations subject to the Law for the Protection of Personal Information and Electronic Documents are required to alert the privacy commissioner of any violation that involves personal information that may damage affected persons. They must also inform affected people.
An investigation carried out by the privacy commissioner is activated when a formal complaint is filed. Dufresne had previously declared in January, when the news of the rape initially extended by the school boards, that the incident was in his radar, he was in contact with Powerschool and that he was determining the next steps.
Names, telephone numbers, sins
Powerschool is used throughout the country, and school boards are still working to determine and communicate the scope of the violation. Some provinces have created dedicated websites to answer questions about Canadian rape and funnel to credit monitoring services offered by Powerschool.
Alberta’s privacy commissioner office said Wednesday that he had received 31 non -compliance notices of schools throughout the province.
A school reported that its breach included names, telephone numbers, genres, allergies, personal health card numbers, the students’ telephone numbers and Guardian’s information, according to the statement.
“We are reviewing the non -compliance warnings as they enter to determine the total number of affected lodges, but it is clear that it is a significant number, including many students,” said Diane Mcleod, a commissioner of information and privacy of Alberta, in a statement.
The violation affected just over 35,000 people in the Northwest territories, according to the territorial government.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Data for more Of 14,400 teachers were exposed, with the oldest records dating from 2010. More than 700 of them had their social security numbers included in the violation. More than 271,000 students also had their data, with the oldest records that date back to high school students in 1995.
Approximately 70,000 student records were accessed on the island of Prince Eduardo, and the Ontario Privacy Commissioner is investigating the 20 School Boards affected there.
More than 35,000 current and previous students, 3,500 parents and guardians and 3,200 current and previous members of the Regional Center for Education of Cape Breton-Victoria, according to the accident their data, according to the New Scotland Government.
