A nationwide cybersecurity breach has affected school districts across multiple states, including South Carolina.
PowerSchool, a cloud-based software used for K-12 education, notified the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDOE) of the incident on Jan. 7, which compromised personally identifiable information for students and staff.
Greenville County Schools shared in a statement that no data from the district was affected or compromised by the cybersecurity breach. This was confirmed by an internal district investigation, PowerSchool and SCDOE.
According to GCS, the district provides PowerSchool with limited access to data and has additional security measures in place to protect students and educators’ personal information.
“In 2023, Greenville County Schools became the first, and remains the only, school district in the nation to earn ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification for information security, which means we have a system in place to manage risks related to the security of district data and that the system respects all the best practices and principles,” according to a GCS statement.
PowerSchool informed SCDOE that the breach has been contained and has taken steps to secure its systems. The state department shared in a statement that is working with legal counsel, the State Law Enforcement Division, the Attorney General’s office and local school districts to determine the next steps.
“While PowerSchool has taken accountability for this breach, our department will take uncompromising action to ensure we uncover the complete extent of this incident. We will insist that PowerSchool not only notify affected individuals but also provide them with credit and identity monitoring services,” said State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver
