Northland School Division

Dear Northland School Division Families:

We are writing to inform you of a recent development related to the cybersecurity incident PowerSchool experienced in December 2024.

PowerSchool is aware that a threat actor has reached out to multiple school district customers in an attempt to extort them using data from the previously reported December 2024 incident. PowerSchool does not believe this is a new incident. Please be assured that both PowerSchool and Northland School Division are taking this situation very seriously. PowerSchool has informed us they are working with cybersecurity experts to thoroughly assess this development and have reported it to law enforcement in both Canada and the United States.

As a reminder, following that incident PowerSchool also offered and made widely available credit monitoring and identity protection services for a period of two years to students and Northland School Division staff regardless of whether they were individually involved. We encourage all those who were offered these services to take advantage of them. Click on the website link for more information https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/notice-of-canada-data-breach/. 

As was reported earlier this year, PowerSchool made the decision to pay a ransom because they believed it to be in the best interest of their customers and the students and communities they serve. As is always the case in situations like this, there was a risk that the bad actors would not delete the data they had stolen, despite the assurances and evidence provided to PowerSchool.

We wanted to share this update as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency. We remain committed to working closely with PowerSchool and law enforcement to provide support in any way we can.


Sincerely,


Cal Johnson
Superintendent of Schools/CEO
Northland School Division