Hillsborough County Public Schools report cyberattack and data breach
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Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida notified 254 families of a potential data breach, wherein personal student data might have been accessed.
HCPS noticed unusual activity in some of their network systems through monitoring systems and proceeded to take precautionary measures by temporarily shutting down several network-connected systems. The investigation determined unauthorized access to certain administrative files from the 2021-2022 school year. Although the review of potentially affected files is ongoing, a preliminary review identified a file containing personally identifiable information for specific children.
The data at risk include:
- student's name,
- date of birth,
- student ID,
- state ID number (possibly corresponding to the student's social security number),
- information about school nurse office visits during the 2021-2022 school year.
Actions taken by HCPS encompass not only enhancing network security and minimizing the risk of future incidents but also reporting the breach to relevant authorities. They are extending complimentary identity protection services to affected students through IDX, a ZeroFox Company, covering 12 months of CyberScan monitoring, a $1,000,000 insurance reimbursement policy, and fully managed identity theft recovery services.
This incident comes within two months of the MOVEit related data breach report by Hllsborough County that impacted their Health Care Services and Aging Services departments.
