PowerSchool Updates

Update #2 for PowerSchool Data Breach

Good morning families/staff,
As an update to previous communication regarding the recent cybersecurity incident experienced by PowerSchool, please see the information below. If you are a family member of a previous student, please forward this message as appropriate.
PowerSchool has engaged Experian, a trusted credit reporting agency, to offer complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services to all students and educators whose information from your PowerSchool SIS was involved. For information regarding the data that was obtained, please refer to previous communications sent from the district located below.
In the coming weeks, Experian (on behalf of PowerSchool) will also be distributing direct email notifications to involved individuals for whom we have sufficient contact information. This email notice will include further information about the information of theirs involved and the resources PowerSchool is offering.

• Identity Protection: PowerSchool will be offering two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was involved.
• Credit Monitoring: PowerSchool will also be offering two years of complimentary credit monitoring services for all adult students and educators whose information was involved.

You may receive an email from one of the following email addresses. These are legitimate communications in relation to the Cybersecurity Incident, and should be whitelisted or flagged as not "spam":

• Ps-sis-incident@mail.csid.com
• Ps-sis-incident@mail1.csid.com
• Ps-sis-incident@mail2.csid.com

For more information, you can visit PowerSchool’s website regarding this incident, along with enrollment information in credit monitoring or identity protection. Please visit https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/notice-of-united-states-data-breach/.

Update #1 for PowerSchool Data Breach

Good evening,

As a follow up to yesterday’s email, the district was able to determine which fields in the Southington Public Schools PowerSchool database have personally identifiable information (PII) for current and past students. Those fields are listed below. Information about classes, grades, etc. is not stored in the same area and was not part of the data breach.

PowerSchool has assured the district that they have taken all appropriate steps to prevent the data involved from further unauthorized access or misuse. They do not anticipate the data being shared or made public and believe it has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination.

We will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available. If you have further questions, please contact the Technology Department at 860-628-3200 x10360.

Jessica Poon, Information Systems Manager
Tyler Savage, Network Manager
Rebecca Savelkoul, Digital Learning Coordinator

Data Fields
Alert_Guardian, Alert_Medical, City, DOB, Doctor_Name, Doctor_Phone, Emerg_Contact_1, Emerg_Contact_2, Emerg_Phone_1, Emerg_Phone_2, ExitComment, Father, Gender, GuardianEmail, Home_Phone, Last_Name, LunchStatus, Mailing_Street, Middle_Name, Mother, Street, Student_Number, Student_Web_ID

Notice of PowerSchool Data Breach

Good evening,
 
The district was made aware yesterday evening by our student information systems vendor, PowerSchool, of a data breach that occurred on December 28, 2024. Members from Southington Public Schools Technology team attended PowerSchool's first available webinar this afternoon to learn the extent and scope of the breach.
 
Here is the information learned in the webinar. The data included is general Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as Name, DOB, Email, etc. At this time, it does not include sensitive information such as SSN or passwords. PowerSchool has assured us that the data should be contained. 
 
We will continue to monitor this situation and provide any new information as it becomes available. If you have questions, you can call the Technology Department at 860-628-3200 x10360.