This is beyond repair … another school district targeted … children with special needs targeted as well

Hello everyone. I’ve about had enough with these types of breaches. This is coming from NBC news. I’m not blaming this on them, because they’re a news organization, so thank you NBC News for bringing this to the public’s attention. This article was written today.

I’ve written about children’s issues when it comes to technology quite a number of times through this blog and podcast.

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blockquote> State legislators will not wait to cover online privacy for children <a href=”TSB 67 How the braille challenge can lead to success and The Security Box, podcast 130: Congress and the government can’t fix Coppa?

Let’s not forget my favorite one that I wrote: Hey Criminals! Keep your hands off our kids and their data! way back in 2020. I had enough then and now I’ve really had enough!

These are several blog posts and podcasts that I’ve published and we’ve talked about.

One particular blog post deals with children’s apps and advertisers.

blog post

But now, actors find it very funny that they want to go ahead and get as much information on children who can’t even do anything about the problem.

The real question comes to this. Why are the schools collecting information including social security numbers? Does it help you do your job? I understand child’s name, parent’s name, address and contact info … but that should be it!

The files reviewed by NBC News include everything from relatively benign data like contact information to far more sensitive information including descriptions of students’ behavioral problems and teachers’ Social Security numbers.

I get the fact that for payment purposes, you night need the teacher’s SSN,, but it wouldn’t surprise me if student data of this sort is in here and we don’t know it.

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It’s a stark reminder that schools often hold reams of sensitive information, and that such leaks often leave parents and administrators with little recourse once their information is released.

Why is this the case! I don’t ever remember this being this much of a problem when I went to school in the 80s and 90s.. I honestly feel sorry about this because I would’ve probably said something back then.

At least 122 public school districts in the U.S. have been hit with ransomware since 2021, Callow said, with more than half — 76 — resulting in the hackers leaking sensitive school and student data.

Its not the school’s fault that you decided to target them. But, it is their fault if you got in through a vulnerability although if you sent a Phishing lure and the person bit, than they need to learn what they did so it didn’t hapen again to the school. What an expensive proposition!

The identity protection is a start, but as stated, it absolutely doesn’t do anything besides help you fix it after the fact.

The article is titled Students’ psychological reports, abuse allegations leaked by ransomware hackers and I want this shared as widely as possible. This happened in Minnesota and affects tons of children who have no idea how to fix it, understand the repercussions of what the hell just happened, or what it will do with their life later if that is the case.

This is beyond repair and Congress and other legislative bodies have not done anything to curve the overall problem of companies including schools that collect way too much data that has nothing to do with teaching, paying for goods and services, sigining up for web hosting or anything else.

For example: a child signs up as an adult for phone service. Fine, run the background check by running the SSN. Once that process is done, ask management if it is necessary for that sensitive information to be kept.

We’ve covered way too many articles and I have even questioned my own business man why I need to collect something like a bank address and SSN. I don’t do that anymore! It isn’t even necessary!

This has really got a nerve with me and I don’t know how to solve it, but it needs to be looked in to. This … is beyond repair.

If anyone knows how we can solve this, let’s see how we can get in contact with the right people and let’s start a conversation.

Here is the boost from Brian Krebs.

BrianKrebs: Boosting Doug Levin (douglevin): NBC: Students’ psychological reports, abuse allegations leaked by ransomware hackers https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/students-psychological-reports-abuse-allegations-leaked-ransomware-hac-rcna79414 #edtech #databreach @brett via @kevincollier

The linked article is above.

Rant over.