Canada’s privacy watchdog ‘in contact’ with PowerSchool on student data hack

Canada's privacy commissioner is communicating with PowerSchool after its software -- used by schools across North America -- was the subject of a data breach.

Canada’s privacy commissioner is communicating with PowerSchool after its software — used by schools across North America to store student data — was the subject of a high-profile data breach.

“The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is in contact with PowerSchool to obtain more information about this breach and to determine next steps,” a spokesperson for Philippe Dufresne’s office wrote in an email to Global News.

The statement from Dufresne’s office comes after it was reported by The Canadian Press several Canadian school boards are among those affected by the data breach.

Officials in Ontario, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia say they’re working with PowerSchool to determine the extent of the breach.

The company behind the software says on its website it had determined that some “personally identifiable information,” such as social security numbers and medical information, “was involved” in the breach. PowerSchool says it is working to identify whose data may have been leaked during the incident, which it says it learned of on Dec. 28.

John Zabiuk, the chair of the cybersecurity program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT Polytechnic), said if that information was leaked about children, “we want to make sure that there’s no predators or anybody looking to cause harm to children is making use of that (information).”

Zabiuk cautioned whether the leaked information involves social insurance numbers or more basic information like a name, phone number and date of birth, it can start the process towards the information being used by bad actors.

“As long as you have enough information that corroborates that you are who you say you are, you can assume an identity,” he said.