Letter to families and staff

We are reaching out to provide you with notification that the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board (BHNCDSB) is one of the school districts impacted by a recent PowerSchool data breach.

PowerSchool is an application used by North American school districts to manage student and staff data. This has impacted random school districts in the United States and Canada. PowerSchool has engaged an independent third-party cyber-security firm to conduct an investigation.

BHNCDSB attended a PowerSchool data breach session late yesterday, where we were informed of potential student and staff information that may have been involved in the breach. PowerSchool is still in the investigation stage of the breach and will be working with us to identify exactly what may have been shared. They have put safeguards in place to mitigate the breach and have assured us that they have taken all the appropriate steps to prevent further unauthorized access or misuse of the affected data. They stated that the incident is contained, and it does not anticipate the data will be shared or made public.

Information Technology Services is working with PowerSchool to identify what data has been breached. They expect a comprehensive report from the third-party cyber security firm by January 17, 2025, after which BHNCDSB will have a clear picture of the extend of our involvement in the breach. At this time, that is all the information pertaining to details of the breach that they have.

Communication Services, who oversee Privacy and Records of the district, has reported the notification of our district’s involvement in the PowerSchool breach to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

When more information is available about the PowerSchool breach, an update will be provided.