US EditionUS school districts facing extortion attempt after hack, software provider says
- PowerSchool, a California-based education software provider, announced that hackers used stolen student data to extort multiple U.S. School districts as of May 2025.
- The extortion followed a December 2024 cybersecurity incident where personal information was stolen from PowerSchool's U.S. Student database, including possibly names and social security numbers.
- Four school districts have been contacted by the threat actor, though their locations remain undisclosed, and PowerSchool chose to pay the ransom to protect its customers and communities.
- PowerSchool described the ransom payment as a "difficult decision" made on assurances and evidence that hackers would delete the stolen data, while the ransom amount was not disclosed.
- This incident highlights ongoing cybersecurity risks for education providers and suggests that such extortion attempts might continue to threaten school districts nationwide.
43 Articles
43 Articles
US school districts facing extortion attempt after hack, software provider says
Hackers have tried to extort "multiple" school districts in the United States using previously stolen data from education software and cloud provider PowerSchool, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
School boards hit with ransom demands linked to PowerSchool cyberattack
Canada's largest school board and others across North America have received ransom demands connected to the massive PowerSchool cybersecurity breach that hit during the winter break — this after the company paid hackers a ransom to delete the stolen data.
PowerSchool customers hit by downstream extortion threats
Five months after education software vendor PowerSchool paid an unnamed threat actor a ransom in exchange for the deletion of sensitive stolen data, some of the company’s customers are now receiving extortion demands. A threat actor, who may or not be the same criminal group behind the attack, has contacted four school district customers of PowerSchool in the past few days, CyberScoop has learned, threatening to leak data if they don’t pay. Th…
Muskoka Region
Ontario student data obtained in a 2024 cyberattack was supposed to be destroyed. It wasn’t. Now there’s a new ransom demand
In a May 7 update, the Peel District School Board said PowerSchool has informed the board an unauthorized user attempted to contact multiple school districts, including PDSB, demanding a ransom using data from a previously reported December 2024 incident.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 39% of the sources lean Right
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
Ownership
To view ownership data please Upgrade to Vantage
