PowerSchool has recently provided an update regarding the cybersecurity incident that occurred in December 2024. While we do not believe Buffalo Trail Public Schools (BTPS) has been affected by this latest development, we wanted to keep you informed.

PowerSchool is aware that a threat actor has reached out to specific school districts in an attempt to extort them using data from the previously reported December 2024 incident. PowerSchool does not believe this is a new incident.

Please be assured that both PowerSchool and BTPS are taking this situation very seriously. PowerSchool has informed us they are working with cybersecurity experts to thoroughly assess this development and have reported it to law enforcement in both Canada and the United States.

As a reminder, following that incident, PowerSchool also offered and made widely available credit monitoring and identity protection services for a period of two years to students and staff, regardless of whether they were individually involved.  We encourage all those who were offered these services (or if you have questions) to take advantage of them at: https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/notice-of-canada-data-breach/

As was reported earlier this year, PowerSchool made the decision to pay a ransom because they believed it to be in the best interest of their customers and the students and communities they serve. As is always the case with these situations, there was a risk that the bad actors would not delete the data they stole, despite assurances and evidence that were provided by PowerSchool.

We wanted to share this update as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency. We remain committed to working closely with PowerSchool and law enforcement to provide support in any way we can.

We will share more information as it becomes available, and would like to share again that BTPS is not currently impacted by this new development.  We will continue to support our families following this data breach between PowerSchool and the bad actors.

Thank you for your patience.