Maryland's Prince George’s County Public Schools says data breach compromised staff and student records

Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland said it experienced a major data breach in August last year that compromised the personal information of staff, past employees, job applicants and students.

 

The public school district, located in Prince George’s County in the U.S. state of Maryland, announced last year that it experienced a cyber security incident that caused a temporary disruption to certain operations.

 

After discovering the incident, the school district initiated an investigation with outside forensic specialists to understand the nature and scope of the incident and to restore all affected operations.

 

The investigation, which concluded recently, revealed that unauthorised actors gained access to the school district’s computer systems between August 3, 2023 and August 14, 2023 and accessed or acquired the personally identifiable information of staff and students.

 

"The information present in the files that may have been viewed or acquired as a result of this incident varies per person, and includes individuals’ name, medical information, health insurance information, Social Security number, driver’s license number, financial account number, and passport number," Prince George’s County Public Schools said.

 

The school district refrained from announcing the number of impacted employees, job applicants and students, but said that it is mailing notice letters to all affected individuals to inform them about the incident and the impact on their personal information.

 

It said that aside from informing affected individuals, it also implemented additional processes and procedures to help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future and is providing complimentary credit monitoring and identity restoration services through Experian to affected staff and students.

 

"We encourage you to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing your account statements regularly and monitoring your free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors," PGCPS told the affected individuals.