DASD uncovers data breach

DOWNINGTOWN >> Downingtown Area School District officials have been alerted to a potential attack on Naviance accounts used by high school students. Naviance is a college and career resource website that assists students in aligning their strengths and interests to their post-secondary goals.

“We understand that this information is deeply disturbing,” Superintendent Emilie Lonardi said. “The highest priority is our students - their safety, their education and supporting their needs. DASD takes the responsibility to gather and store student and family information seriously. Modifications have and will continue to be made to our internal practices and the district plans to conduct internal training beyond the normal, ongoing training.”

Upon notification, the technology department immediately began an investigation and since then has been working with administration and communicating with local law enforcement to clarify details and determine the extent of this attack.

It has been determined that through illicit means, the perpetrators obtained teacher-level access to DASD accounts. Using unethical coding methods, they were

able to exploit DASD systems and extract student profile information for the entirety of DASD’s student population. It is believed that they collected student IDs, student directory information, gender, ethnicity, GPA and SAT scores, and household and nonhousehold relationship information.

No information was altered or manipulated in any way. There are no social security numbers for students or parents in any DASD systems. No credit card information is stored in these systems and no credit card information was compromised. The perpetrators claim the information was collected to obtain student addresses to gain a competitive advantage for the senior water games, a game that students play outside of the school district.

These actions are reprehensible and DASD is taking this attack very seriously. This is a crime against DASD and, more importantly, a crime against the DASD student and parent community.

The consequences for these young individuals will likely be severe. Cyber hacking is a federal crime and DASD is working with the proper authorities to determine the appropriate discipline and legal ramifications.

Out of an abundance of caution, all employees will be required to change their DASD master credentials.

As this in an ongoing investigation, DASD will continue to provide any pertinent updates as they become available at www.dasd.org.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Downingtown High School West was one of the schools in the district hit with a data breach.