(WNY News Now) The Bemus Point Central School District has acknowledged that it was a part of the recent PowerSchool cybersecurity incident that affected other districts throughout the country.
New York’s Bemus Point. Families and employees were recently notified by the Bemus Point Central School District of a data breach involving PowerSchool, the platform used to handle student data. PowerSchool informed the district that sensitive customer data had been accessed without authorization, affecting school systems in Chautauqua County and the US.
Unauthorized access was gained to student and family contact information, including names, addresses, and phone numbers, as well as staff names and email addresses. Bemus Point administrators did clarify, though, that district passwords were not hacked and that financial data is not kept in PowerSchool.
“While this situation is concerning, we want to assure you that our district takes the protection of student and staff data very seriously,” Superintendent Joe Reyda said in an attempt to reassure the community of the district’s dedication to data security.
PowerSchool claims that the hackers have been apprehended and that the hacked material was not made public or made available to the public. It has been stated that the impacted data has been safely erased. Other district platforms were not impacted by the incident, which only happened on PowerSchool’s systems.
District authorities have promised to provide more information when it becomes available and are keeping a careful eye on the situation. Residents are urged to contact Superintendent Reyda or the district’s Director of Technology, Bill Arthurs, at (716) 386-7311 or by email at [email protected], if they have any questions or concerns.