FLAGSTAFF — The Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) has notified 6,597 students and 319 staff members that personally identifiable information was released during a recent data security incident via the Pearson AIMSweb 1.0 platform – a system that FUSD no longer uses. Information released included the first and last names of students and employee first and last names, FUSD employee email addresses, and, in limited cases, employee ID numbers.
FUSD was made aware of the situation in early August 2019 and has worked to validate data relating to the breach while evaluating that other services were not impacted. The Pearson breach was limited to the single third party service provider and on one single software system – Pearson AIMSweb 1.0. Any questions related to the scope and technical details of this national breach can be directed to the service provider.
Notifications to student’s families and employees were done via phone calls and emails with information regarding Pearson’s offer of a complimentary one-year membership in Experian’s IdentityWorksSM system that monitors identity detection and resolution of potential identity theft. Impacted individuals have until January 31, 2020 to register for the identity theft restoration services.
“We take data management and security seriously in the Flagstaff Unified School District, “ shared Director of Communications Zachery Fountain. “Upon receiving word of the breach, our teams worked to validate the issues, evaluate potential security issues, and inform those impacted in a quick manner that also ensured that the full scope of the issue was understood and could be communicated.”
FUSD has set up a website with information pertaining to the breach that will be updated if additional information is learned through the process. The information is available at fusd1.org/impacted.