"Ransomware Hackers Steal Personal Data of 500,000 Students and Staff in Chicago"
It has recently been discovered that the personal information of more than half a million Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students and staff was leaked in a ransomware attack last December, and the breach wasn’t reported until April. On Friday, the district said that technology vendor Battelle for Kids notified CPS of the breach on April 25. CPS stated that a server used to store student and staff information was breached, and four years’ worth of records were accessed. CPS said that 495,448 student and 56,138 employee records were accessed from 2015-16 through 2018-2019 school years. Student information involved in the breach included students’ names, schools, dates of birth, gender, CPS identification numbers, state student identification numbers, class schedule information, and scores on course-specific assessments. Employee information included names, employee identification numbers, school and course information, emails, and usernames. CPS noted that the affected information did not include Social Security numbers, financial information, health data, current course or schedule information, home addresses and course grades, standardized test scores, or teacher evaluation scores.