Worcester County Public Schools Affected by Cybersecurity Incident

The Worcester County Public School District is one of many affected by a cybersecurity incident last week. Superintendent Lou Taylor says the incident involved PowerSchool – the software vendor that provides their Student Information System. He says the incident involved unauthorized access to certain data including staff, parent, and student contact information and some personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers and medical information. PowerSchool says the incident is contained and there is no current or on-going threat.

Full letter from Superintendent Lou Taylor:

PowerSchool Announces Cybersecurity Incident, WCPS Impacted

Worcester County Public Schools

January 10, 2025

Dear Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) community:

This letter is to inform you of a recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool, the software vendor which provides our Student Information System (SIS).

On January 7, 2025, PowerSchool notified WCPS that a cybersecurity incident occurred which involved the unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool SIS data. This was an attack on PowerSchool as a company and not directed at any one school district.  Unfortunately, WCPS is one of the many school districts throughout the world which has been affected by this event. Through discussions with PowerSchool, the company acknowledged that there was no action WCPS could have taken to prevent the breach.

PowerSchool informed WCPS that the accessed data includes staff, parent, and student contact information and some personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers and medical information. PowerSchool has also advised WCPS that this incident is now contained, and we have been assured that there is no current and ongoing threat to our student and staff data. PowerSchool further advised that it has notified the FBI and hired a cybersecurity firm to assist in addressing the breach.

PowerSchool has assured WCPS that it will provide more information and resources, including the availability of credit monitoring or identity protection services for impacted individuals, as it becomes available. Lastly, PowerSchool has made a commitment to conduct a thorough notification process to all impacted individuals.  WCPS intends to hold PowerSchool to its commitments. 

We want to assure you that our WCPS team remains committed to diligently protecting our student and staff information. It is our intention to openly communicate with and support our students, staff, and their families to the best of our ability throughout this process and to closely monitor PowerSchool’s legal obligations to safeguard against and manage cybersecurity data breaches. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Sincerely, 
Louis H. Taylor
Superintendent of Schools