Over 70 million PowerSchool records stolen in massive educational data breach

TL;DR: Parents, students, and educators across North America are reeling after what is shaping up to be the largest data breach of the new year. Hackers infiltrated a cloud-based software provider used by K-12 schools, compromising the sensitive information of millions of students and school personnel.

Based in Folsom, California, PowerSchool serves 16,000 schools globally and manages data for over 60 million students. On January 7, the company confirmed that attackers had accessed and exfiltrated personal data stored in its Student Information System.

The stolen data includes Social Security numbers, medical records, and home addresses. A report by Bleeping Computer revealed an extortion note from the attackers claiming they had stolen the records of 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers.

Among the hardest hit is the Toronto District School Board in Canada, which disclosed Monday that information on all students enrolled between 1985 and 2024 ...