Cybersecurity breach of Nova Scotia school system could have financial impact

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Education Department has asked for help from IBM as it investigates a cybersecurity breach involving a student information system used across North America, saying the breach could have a financial impact on some former and current teachers and staff.

The department issued a statement Saturday saying some social insurance numbers collected before 2010 were included in data stolen during the recent breach of the cloud-based PowerSchool system, which is used to track enrolment, attendance, grades and other data.

Education officials say about 250 current and former employees of the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education should monitor their bank accounts for irregular activity. The department says those affected will be contacted by the provincial government about getting credit protection.

On Thursday, Nova Scotia officials said the security breach, first reported Wednesday, also affected schools in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

In Ontario, district schools boards in Toronto, Peel and Durham issued notices about a “cyber incident” targeting PowerSchool.

The boards said the U.S.-based third-party vendor that offers the PowerSchool software had experienced a data breach between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28.

Published reports indicate the breach also affected other school boards in Ontario, as well as in Alberta, Manitoba and several U.S. states.

The California-based company has said the breach was contained. The company says its software is used by 18,000 customers in more than 80 countries, where about 60 million K-12 students are tracked.

“We take our responsibility to protect student data privacy and act responsibly as data processors extremely seriously,” the company said in its statement Wednesday.

Typically, the system does not include medical information or financial data, such as credit card numbers. But it does include birth dates, addresses, allergy alerts, health card numbers, emergency contact information and whether a student has any adaptations, Nova Scotia officials said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2025.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press