New Hampshire officials address PowerSchool data breach concerns

Officials in New Hampshire are discussing data security following a major breach of PowerSchool software. The breach, which occurred in December, affected schools nationwide and revealed personal information of students and staff, including names, ages, and addresses. Thousands of students in New Hampshire were impacted by this breach. PowerSchool is widely used by schools to manage information like grades, attendance, and even Social Security numbers. The software supports around 50 million students across the United States. Many schools reported delays in communications about the breach from PowerSchool. In response, the company is offering two years of identity protection to those affected. U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan met with New Hampshire school officials to address the situation. She noted that data breaches are becoming more frequent and emphasized the need for increased security measures from large companies. Hassan is calling on PowerSchool, along with other senators, to provide a full report on the incident, including how it happened and what will be done to prevent future breaches. The senators highlighted that PowerSchool lacked essential security features like multifactor authentication that could have helped avert the breach.