Free protection identity services offered to anyone impacted by large-scale school cyber incident

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on February 25, 2025.

newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com

Both the Medicine Hat Public School Division and the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education are sharing details on free protection and credit-monitoring services available for a large number of Hatters whose student data in PowerSchool was accessed in a widespread cyberattack in January that impacted hundreds of school divisions across North America.

The cyberattack collected student and staff information dating back as far as 2010 and includes demographic information such as names, date of birth, home phone numbers, mail addresses, medical alert information, Alberta Student Numbers and custody orders.

PowerSchool, a third-party cloud platform, has engaged with TransUnion and Experian to offer two years of identity protection and credit-monitoring services to all students and staff whose information was involved in the data breach.

MHPSD says families and staff who have been impacted should have recently received an email from PowerSchool that includes information about the free services being offered.

The division says the email was sent to impacted users on around Feb. 20 and is sent from Ps-sis-incident@mail1.csid.com, and may have been sent to the spam folder.

“Families and staff can choose to use the free service, or not, at their own discretion,” reads a statement from MHPSD.

The Catholic division has shared an online link to PowerSchool’s website that includes useful information for individuals impacted by the breach, and it can be found by visiting the MHCBE’s website and clicking the “All News” tab.

PowerSchool is asking all those affected to enrol by May 30.

Since the cyberattack, PowerSchool has reported it has strengthened its password policies and controls and is working with cybersecurity companies to investigate any potential misuse of data.

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