Protecting Your Child’s Information: What You Need to Know
A recent cybersecurity breach at PowerSchool has impacted student and staff data at STMC. Find out what happened, how your child’s information may be affected, and what steps are being taken to protect it. Learn about complimentary identity and credit monitoring services now available to those impacted.
Re-posted from School email dated Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 12:35:02 p.m. PST
We are contacting families of current students at St. Thomas More Collegiate (STMC) further to our previous communication regarding the recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool, the software vendor that provides our Student Information System (SIS). This email contains important new information regarding identity and credit monitoring services being offered by PowerSchool.
On January 7, 2025, STMC was informed by PowerSchool of a cybersecurity incident that occurred between December 21 and December 28, 2024, involving unauthorized access to certain data of PowerSchool SIS – a platform we, and many other schools in North America use to store student and staff information. Unfortunately, PowerSchool has now confirmed that this data includes personal information pertaining to some of our students and staff.
Although the breach did not originate from STMC, upon learning of the incident, we promptly activated our response plan, taking immediate steps to ensure that our critical systems remained operational.
PowerSchool has informed us that they have taken all necessary measures to prevent any further unauthorized access or misuse of the impacted personal information. They are confident that the data accessed by an unauthorized user has since been deleted and that no copies of this data were posted online.
Additionally, PowerSchool has recently informed us that they will be implementing further measures in response to this incident. Please note that these actions are being taken independently of STMC. Below are the details provided to us by PowerSchool:
Identity Protection and Credit Monitoring Services: PowerSchool has engaged TransUnion and Experian, trusted credit reporting agencies, to offer two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and staff whose information from our PowerSchool SIS was involved. This offer will also include two years of complimentary credit monitoring services for all students and staff whose information was involved and who have reached the age of majority. The offered credit monitoring services, which will be available for those who have reached the age of majority, will be provided by TransUnion; the offered identity protection services, which will be available for all involved students and staff, will be provided by Experian. Credit monitoring is being provided by TransUnion because Experian does not offer credit monitoring in Canada.
Notification to Individuals Involved: In collaboration with TransUnion and Experian, PowerSchool will provide notice to students, parents/guardians and staff (as applicable) whose information was involved, as well as a phone number to answer any questions you may have about the incident. The notice will include the identity protection and credit monitoring services offer (as applicable).
STMC encourages you to visit https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/ for up-to-date information on the incident.
Further details on how the incident has affected STMC can be found on the school website at https://stthomasmorecollegiate.ca/discover/powerschool_cyberincident/
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the incident that you would like to be relayed to STMC, please contact us at powerschool_cyberincident_contact@my.stmc.bc.ca
Thank you for your understanding.