PowerSchool, an education technology platform that serves K-12 schools worldwide, suffered a cybersecurity breach late last month, impacting at least three districts in Maine, school officials said.

At least one unauthorized user was able to access the company’s information systems, Regional School Unit 21, which covers Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, told families in a letter Wednesday afternoon.

It’s not clear exactly what information was accessed during the breach, or how many schools in Maine were impacted.

PowerSchool is conducting an ongoing data review and hopes to alert customers to details of the breach “as soon as possible,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. She did not answer questions about what data may have been impacted or how many schools in Maine use the service.

“I don’t have any regional specifics to share at this time,” she said. “We do not anticipate the data being shared or made public, and we believe it has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination.”

Still, PowerSchool will provide credit monitoring services and identify protection services to adults and children who may have been affected, she said.

Advertisement

PowerSchool notified three districts in Maine that it they may have been impacted by the breach, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education said.

“The implications of that impact, in terms of what data may have been accessed, however, are still unclear,” they said in a written statement.

Jamie Jensen, the district’s IT director, said the company has “assured leaders that the incident is contained” and any data that may have been involved has been deleted and will not be made public.

PowerSchool has made it very clear this was not a cyber attack directed at schools (including RSU 21), but rather a PowerSchool incident,” Jensen said. “Given the global use of PowerSchool, it may take some time to know the exact details of our specific situation.”

Neither Jensen nor Superintendent Terri Cooper immediately replied to emailed questions about what data might have been impacted and could not be reached by phone Wednesday evening.

Though not isolated to Maine, the PowerSchool incident follows a pair of issues Maine public schools reported Monday, including an attempted phishing scam from a student email address in Cumberland and an external breach of South Portland Public School’s network.

In both cases, which did not appear to be related, officials said the issues had been fully resolved.

Related Headlines

Comments are not available on this story.