CASEY, Ill. (WAND) – A company data breach has affected student information in a central Illinois school district.
The Casey Westfield Community School District said in a Facebook post a breach in its past online system, AIMSweb 1.0, led to a third party accessing information of 892 current and past students and staff. Its leaders said the breach only affected names and possibly email addresses and birth dates of students. Account administration data involved in the breach may involve job titles and work addresses, according to a letter from Pearson Assessments – the company that created AIMSweb.
That letter is available in a PDF document attached to this story.
Pearson’s document said the company found out about the breach in March of 2019 and learned through its own investigation that it happened “in or around” November 2018. The company said grade and assessment information was not involved in the breach, and details like Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or financial information are not on the AIMSweb platform.
According to district leaders, current students and staff affected have been notified through email. Past students in grades K-6 from 2008 to 2016 could be affected. Free Experian credit monitoring services, which Pearson has agreed to offer people affected by the breach, are available to former students by calling (866)883-3309.
A Pearson statement said the company takes its role in protecting personal information “very seriously”. It said “prompt action” was taken to secure the AIMSweb 1.0 platform, and that no other Pearson systems were affected.
“As a result of this incident, we are undergoing a review to determine additional steps we can take to further enhance the safety and security of your students’ and account administrator’s personal information and our systems, to help prevent recurrences of incidents such as this one,” the statement said.
