COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)– Millions of students personal information may have been exposed including students in the Midlands. South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) officials have announced it was notified by PowerSchool of a data breach. PowerSchool is an online education portal that allows teachers, students, and parents to connect and focus on the students’ individual needs. Officials say they do not yet understand the full scope of the breach. A spokesperson for the department says it is working with districts to determine the best course of action. Richland One Superintendent Dr. Craig Witherspoon released a statement on the breach. “The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) has notified school districts statewide about a cybersecurity breach that resulted in unauthorized access to certain data from PowerSchool’s Student Information Systems, including data from multiple states and school districts worldwide. According to SCDE, PowerSchool officials have confirmed that personally identifiable information, which may have included Social Security Numbers (SSN) for some users, was compromised. SCDE is working to understand the full scope of the breach and identify next steps. We are also investigating to determine whether Richland One has been impacted by the data breach and, if so, to what extent. Please note that the data breach is a breach of the PowerSchool systems and not the Richland One network. SCDE also informed districts that PowerSchool officials stated that the data breach has been contained and that steps have been taken to strengthen the security of its systems to prevent future breaches. SCDE will be working with PowerSchool regarding credit monitoring for impacted adults and identity protection services for minors whose SSN were affected. We will keep you informed as we learn more from SCDE and through our own investigation. Persons impacted by the data breach will be notified.”   Sincerely,  Craig Witherspoon, Ed.D., Superintendent of Richland County School District One Categories: Local News, State Tags: South Carolina Department of Education