“This is a real watershed moment for the DOE, and actually the state education department, to prove that they’re serious about protecting student privacy,” she continued - and if they don’t, “They will have proven that they’re not responsible guardians of our children’s privacy.” “My feeling about this is that if the DOE is truly taking this seriously, as they should, they should both fine this vendor to the maximum amount … and cut off contracts with them,” Haimson said. Leonie Haimson, who co-chairs the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, told The Post her organization was concerned that the release of students’ sensitive information could negatively affect their futures.Īdvocates have been “haggling” with the city and state education departments for years about student privacy, she said. The department will also investigate Illuminate’s claim that it had increased safeguards.ģ Leonie Haimson claimed the organization was concerned that the release of students’ information could affect their futures in a negative way. The information compromised in the hack dated back to the 2016-17 school year, officials said.

The DOE said it would send letters to families affected by the breach. “We are outraged that Illuminate represented to us and schools that legally required, industry standard critical safeguards were in place when they were not,” Chancellor David Banks told The Post, while calling for city, state and federal investigations. The students’ social security numbers and family financial information were not collected by the DOE and were not compromised, according to the sources.Įducation officials on Friday accused Illuminate of failing to encrypt its IO Classroom, Skedula and Pupilpath platforms. The breach of Illuminate Education, a taxpayer-funded software company the city’s Department of Education uses to track grades and attendance, resulted in a hacker gaining access to students’ names, birthdays, ethnicities and English-speaking, special-education and free-lunch statuses, sources said. The personal data of about 820,000 current and former New York City public school students was compromised in a January hack. What happens to your personal info after a data breach? Snapchat’s AI bot sparks privacy panic after it posts photo on its own How to defend your digital footprint in one tap with free ‘Permission Slip’ app MGM Resorts loses over $100M after refusing to pay ransom to end cyberattack

Illuminate education software