A month after a “cyber incident” forced Springfield Public Schools to close for four days, the district says it’s still on the mend, but making progress.
That being said, the number of people who may have had their records compromised is growing.
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In the district’s latest update on the September hack that took down SPS systems, officials say records involving various former employees, volunteers and contractors were compromised.
That’s in addition to Social Security numbers linked to some current employees. Assistant Superintendent Jose Escribano said as much during a Thursday school committee meeting.
“Investigators have now confirmed that Social Security numbers belonging to some current employees hired before 2008 were compromised,” he said, while noting the hack investigation has been ongoing.
“Based on the findings to date, Social Security numbers do not appear to have been compromised for employees hired in 2008 or later. Compromised records also include information related to former employees whose service dates back to 2009 and earlier, volunteers whose service dates back to 2001 and earlier and independent contractors who have worked with Springfield Public Schools over the years," he continued.
Escribano noted that free credit monitoring will be extended to all impacted parties. He also reiterated that SPS does not “routinely store” Social Security numbers for the city’s 23,500 students.
He also said school-issued laptops were still in the process of being restored or “reimaged” – with 65 percent of staff laptops done. When all is said and done, district officials say 20,000 SPS computers will have been “reimaged.”
More details from the latest SPS hack update can be found here.
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Audio for this story was provided by Focus Springfield
