Over 360,000 Affected by Florida School Data Breach

A data breach at the Florida Virtual School is thought to have impacted more than 368,000 current and former students and up to 2,000 teachers at the school.

A statement from FLVS says the breach likely occurred between May 6, 2016, and Feb. 12, 2018, but it wasn’t reported until last Friday. FLVS says school records including students names, dates of birth, school account numbers, their usernames and passwords as well as parent’s names and emails were compromised by the breach.

Dean Ferrando, Systems Engineer Manager - EMEA at Tripwire, said: "Educational institutions are prime targets for cyber attackers due to the critical data they hold. Schools, Colleges and Universities have large collections of personally identifiable information for their faculty, staff, and students, and this provides significant motivation for attackers to try and exploit any vulnerability within their systems.

"Therefore, organisations need to actively observe how their system operates, especially when private information is concerned. In doing so, they can ensure that all systems are configured properly and securely.

"For those affected by the data breach, it’s imperative that all accounts are regularly monitored for identity theft. Changing passwords will also help, no matter what information was compromised. Victims are most vulnerable during the initial moments after the attack and this is why we recommend they act with extreme caution when dealing with incoming emails and telephone calls regarding the breach."