Breach, Threat Management, Data Security

Georgia school district suffers breach

Columbia County School District in Georgia was hit by a breach that compromised personal data, including Social Security numbers, of staff, according to WRDW12.

The media outlet reported that on Nov. 28 the district confirmed that one of its servers had been compromised by an outside party. Immediate action was taken to remove and isolate the server. Officials said they were working with law enforcement and a third-party security firm to investigate the matter.

While the district claimed that no student data was on the server, personal information – including names, Social Security numbers and birth dates – of employees, spouses, dependents and insurance beneficiaries was put at risk.

Affected individuals were advised to place a fraud alert on their credit report, and the school district has offered at no cost an initial fraud alert that will be effective for at least 90 days.

In addition, officials suggested that those potentially affected place a security freeze on a credit file. 

How many records were exposed and whether the purloined data has shown up elsewhere has not yet been disclosed.

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