Now that many, if not most, of the nation’s 51 million students are learning online at least some of the time, I’m thinking even more about the IT burden on schools. One of the biggest issues is keeping students’ sensitive information safe, everything from Social Security numbers to medical histories.  

A recent Congressional watchdog report highlights that attacks by cyber criminals have been rare, despite the marketing hype by cyber security companies. Indeed, the causes of the largest incidents of student data breaches appear to be accidental errors in posting data online by school and district staff and attacks at outside vendors that store student information on their servers.

• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) counted 99 school data breaches over the past four years, from July 2016 to May 2020. Some were large and affected thousands, possibly millions, of student records. 

• Direct harm to students appears to be rare but there are anecdotal examples of sensitive student information appearing online or of students’ Social Security numbers being used to open credit accounts.  

• The GAO wasn’t able to conduct a thorough survey of every school district in the country. We largely remain in the dark about the extent of the school cyber security problem and what’s causing it.

• Teachers and staff are targeted more frequently by cybercriminals than students. Beware of phishing emails from impostor supervisors asking to confirm payroll or bank account details.

“Recent K-12 Data Breaches Show That Students Are Vulnerable to Harm,” Government Accountability Office report to the Republican Leader, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, published September 2020, publicly released October 2020. GAO-20-644. 

* Pearson cyberattack 

* Edmodo   

* K12.com   

* Schoolzilla 

* Florida Virtual School 

* San Diego