UCSD wants to make our community aware of a recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool, a software vendor contracted by the South Carolina State Department of Education which provides our Student Information System (SIS) to all Districts in the state and many worldwide. On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at approximately 2 PM, PowerSchool informed our leadership team that they experienced a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool SIS customer data. Unfortunately, they have confirmed that the information belongs to some of our students and staff members. Over the days that followed, PowerSchool informed us that the data taken primarily includes data elements such as name, address and in some cases personally identifiable information (PII) such as social security numbers (SSN) and medical information. They are working with urgency to complete their investigation and determine the full extent of the data and how each person was affected. Protecting our students and staff is something we take seriously. With PowerSchool's help, more information and resources (including credit monitoring or identity protection services if applicable) will be provided to you as it becomes available. Additionally, the South Carolina Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, a division of SLED, along with contracted vendors by PowerSchool have started monitoring the dark web for the presence of any data linked to this incident. Please see more information on the South Carolina State Department of Education website at https://ed.sc.gov.
Please see this article on Newsweek for additional information: PowerSchool Issues Nationwide Data Breach Alert: What We Know - Newsweek