CANADA, January 9 - The Government of Prince Edward Island is informing students, parents, guardians, teachers, and school administration that some of their personal information may have been part of PowerSchool’s recent North American cybersecurity incident.

As a result of unauthorized access to PowerSchool, a third-party platform used by many education systems including PEI, personal data of past and present Island school members may have been compromised. Personal information that may have been accessed include:

• Name;
• Date of birth;
• Address;
• Phone numbers; and/or;
• Other personal information such as food allergies.

PowerSchool has advised Government that they have contained this incident, and that they have implemented enhanced internal controls to secure their system, including deactivating the compromised credentials. PowerSchool has also confirmed that there is no evidence of continued unauthorized activity. The platform remains operational across the Island school system. 

The Province has been in direct communications with PowerSchool to better understand the scope of the incident and to identify who has been impacted on Prince Edward Island. All identified individuals will receive further information in the coming weeks. Government is committed to informing our school community members and will provide timely updates as new information becomes available. A dedicated website will be established on the provincial site with the latest public information.

The Province is also in ongoing discussions with PowerSchool about credit monitoring and identity protection services for eligible impacted individuals. 

The PEI Information and Privacy Commissioner has also been notified of the event.  

Anyone with questions or concerns regarding this incident can contact the Department of Education and Early Years by email depteey@gov.pe.ca at this time while a dedicated phone number is made available.

Media contact:
Vicki Tse
Department of Education and Early Years
vickitse@gov.pe.ca