Calgary schools among those affected by third-party data breach

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) says a database with information about its students and staff has been accessed in a cybersecurity breach.

In a statement to CityNews, the CBE says the incident occurred on Tuesday with its PowerSchool system and it immediately limited third-party access to the system.

The board says it has been assured by the provider that the threat has been containing and they are increasing security measures.

The CBE says there was no access to financial information in the database, but they are working to determine what data was actually assessed.

“We do not have any further information from PowerSchool and do not know the extent to which our division was compromised,” reads the statement. “We will communicate what we know to families and staff as quickly as possible when we know more.”

In the meantime, students and their families will still have access to PowerSchool and the board says it is still safe to use.

PowerSchool, a U.S.-based provider of cloud software, says in a statement it has taken “all appropriate steps” to prevent further unauthorized access or misuse of the affected data.

School boards in multiple provinces have been affected by the data breach.