PowerSchool Offers Identity Monitoring in Wake of Data Breach

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Families of school-children concerned about the PowerSchool data breach announced last year can sign up for two years of free identity monitoring services paid for by the school information system vendor.
 
Mount Greylock Regional School interim Superintendent Joseph Bergeron mentioned the offer at last week's meeting of the School Committee and said he was hoping to spread the word through as many channels as possible.
 
"We have plenty of folks whose emails have changed," Bergeron said, pointing out the difficulty in reaching every former student or staff member who could have been affected by the data breach.
 
Bergeron said a link has been added to the district’s website to connect people directly to PowerSchool to sign up for the complementary identity monitoring.
 
The PowerSchool website explained that the service is available regardless of whether an individual's data was part of the breach:
 
"PowerSchool is offering complimentary identity protection services including, if applicable, credit monitoring services, for involved students and educators, regardless of whether an individual’s Social Security Number/Social Insurance Number was exfiltrated. In countries outside of the U.S. and Canada where the provider provides such services, PowerSchool is offering two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was involved, regardless of what information about an individual was exfiltrated."

Tags: data breach,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Letter: We Have Great Political Leaders, Let's Keep 'em

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

We are very lucky in Berkshire County. Our political leaders are the envy of voters around the nation and respected by their peers — and because of their experience, knowledge, and seniority they get stuff done for us.

Sen. Ed Markey once again faces a challenger whose entire campaign is founded on age. As WBUR in Boston observed, Moulton is running on age, but what else? Joe Kennedy had the same platform — and Massachusetts voters rejected him.

It seems to me a candidate's age is irrelevant if he's doing the job, and Ed Markey is doing his job — very well, in fact. He's no stranger to the Berkshires, and he's fighting Trump's fascist policies every single day.
He is also the Senate author of the Green New Deal legislation.

Congressman Richie Neal is in a similar fight. I've asked friends who oppose him to name one vote he's taken they disagree with, and they cannot. Remember, the great Nancy Pelosi trusted Richie and made him chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which benefits us in the Berkshires as well as the nation. Richie is a powerful advocate for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, West-East Rail, and local investment. His opponent would be a back-bencher with zero clout.

The same arguments could — and should — be made for the rest of our Democratic contingent in Boston: Gov. Maura Healey's opponent is likely to be a Boston-centric MAGA billionaire. Do you think he cares about us? Our state Sen. Paul Mark and state Reps. John Barrett, Trish Farley-Bouvier, and Leigh Davis are all tried and true progressive Beacon Hill veterans who also know how to get stuff done. And Tara Jacobs, our representative on the Governor's Council, provides a Berkshire voice on that body that has been absent since the 1950s.

This is a nation on the brink. We have serious problems, and we need serious people to deal with them. Our Democratic contingent is made up of very serious people. That's why they all have my vote. I hope they have yours, too.

Lee Harrison
Williamstown, Mass.

 

 

View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories