Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is urging families to be vigilant after cybercriminals sent extortion messages to several North Carolina schools, claiming to have stolen student and teacher data linked to January’s PowerSchool data breach. The district says not to open suspicious links or emails or engage with anyone claiming to have the stolen data. CMS said its investigation suggests the cybercriminals have access to the same data tables that were originally compromised, including student and staff names, contact information, Social Security numbers and more.
The state Department of Public Instruction is working with law enforcement. PowerSchool reportedly paid a ransom in exchange for the data’s deletion, but several schools and the department reported receiving the messages this week.
