Texas School’s Suffer a Major Data Breach
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- By Dawna M. Roberts
- Published: Oct 28, 2021
- Last Updated: Mar 18, 2022
Some hacker gangs employ a moral code and avoid attacking certain types of businesses. One of those is schools and educational organizations. However, other gangs or individual operators do not follow any moral code, and one of them recently hit the largest school district in Texas with a major data breach.
What is Going On?
The data breach was announced last Friday, and the incident occurred on August 8th. An unknown and unauthorized individual breached the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) and accessed records for students, employees, parents, and alumni of more than 145,000 students spread across 230 schools served by 22,000 employees. It is the most significant data breach in the region and covered the past eleven years of records.
In its notice to the public, the school district noted that,
“An unauthorized third party accessed our network, downloaded data, and temporarily stored it on an encrypted cloud storage site. The data has since been removed from the site.”
“To date, our cybersecurity experts have found no evidence indicating the data was otherwise accessed, disseminated, or sold. However, we cannot be 100% sure until our ongoing investigation is complete.”
What Data Was Stolen?
The question on everyone’s mind is what data did the hacker steal, and could it result in identity theft or fraud? According to InfoSecurity Magazine, the data breach included “full names, addresses, phone, and social security numbers, dates of birth and employment and salary info for current and former employees and contractors.”
Additionally, “For current and former students, it includes full names, social security numbers, dates of birth, parent and guardian info and grades. According to the alert, some students’ custody status and medical conditions may also have been exposed.”
Should Victims Worry About Identity Theft?
Absolutely. Anytime personal school records are exposed, they contain specific information that skilled scammers could easily use to steal identities and commit all types of fraud. Anyone caught in this data breach should take advantage of credit and identity theft monitoring services provided. They should also:
- Keep a close eye on their credit report.
- Watch their bank and credit card statements for suspicious activity.
- Watch out for phishing emails and scam calls.
- Never click links in an email or download attachments.
- Always use super strong passwords on all accounts and never reuse them.
Did the School District Handle Things?
The school district is offering all victims a full year of free credit monitoring and ID theft recovery services. In addition, they have been working closely with law enforcement and private forensic investigators to research the attack to determine what the goal was.
The Dallas ISD said,
“We confirmed that the unauthorized third party removed the data from the encrypted cloud storage site and has informed us the data was not disseminated or sold to anyone.”
Although how the breach occurred has not yet been determined, the Dallas ISD’s IT department is working closely with investigators and has fixed “specific vulnerabilities that were exploited during this event.” In addition, they continue to enhance their network and further secure their systems with protections to avoid any additional attacks.
The Dallas ISD reassured victims that,
“The confidentiality, privacy, and security of information in our care is one our highest priorities. We take this matter very seriously and have invested significant resources to protect sensitive data. Despite our efforts, the district is now one of a growing number of public and private organizations experiencing cyberattacks.”
The school district urges anyone with questions to reach out to them via phone or email.
