The Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board has sent letters to students and former students informing them their personal information was compromised in a cyber attack that was first announced on Dec. 15, 2022. The attack initially took down the board’s website, as well as telephones, public address systems, and email for all board sites.
The Sault Star reported Tuesday that director of education Danny Viotto and board chair Gary Trembinski signed the notification, apologizing and informing student recipients that information stolen included date of birth, Ontario Education Number, Student Performance Information (other than report cards), citizenship status, country of birth and other immigration related information.
According to the Star, the letter said, “The cyber criminals have communicated that the data they accessed has been deleted. We have no reason to believe that the cyber criminals have kept or misused the data in any way, through if you have reason to believe otherwise, please let us know right away.”
The board’s website posted a May update revealing that, in addition to the affected employees who were notified in January, data analysis revealed that information of students, former students, and additional employees had also been accessed. The board said it was offering credit monitoring services to individuals “as warranted and based on the type of information exposed.”
“Delivering the notices was a major milestone in putting this difficult matter behind us,” the board said in its post. “We have learned from it and are continuing to strengthen our defences. Security concerns themselves limit our ability to say more, but we would like our community to know that our efforts are multi-faceted, improve our defences against phishing attacks, and enhance our ability to detect intrusions should they occur.
“We are confident that we are better protected from the significant cyber security risks which face school boards across the province today.”