B.C. school district says 'personal data' on 19,000 students and staff was released

The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District main office is seen in this file photo.

A B.C. school district is warning parents, teachers and students about the "unauthorized disclosure of personal data" related to more than 19,000 people in the school community.

In a notice posted on its website Thursday, the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District says it is "investigating and mitigating" an incident in which the information was publicly released. 

"Because of the high number of records (19,126), the district assumes the incident affects both students and staff," the notice reads.

"The information that has been accessed, while concerning, was confined to easily attainable information with limited use," it continues. "The sensitivity of this information is considered low. At this time, the school district has no evidence that critical information was disclosed."

According to the notice, the school district learned about the incident on the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 17.

The information released included people's first and last names, school/department, district email address and grade (for students).

"While this data is internally available to students and staff in our active directory (email) phone book, in the wrong hands it can be used for targeted phishing attacks that attempt to trick the recipient into clicking on links or downloading attachments," the district says.

It's recommending that students who use their district email accounts be "extra vigilant" with emails that request personal information. For staff, the district says it anticipates an increase in phishing attacks.

"This is an important reminder for staff and students to never share their SD42 credentials (i.e. user ID and password) with anyone," the notice reads.

The district says it initiated "an immediate review of its systems and logs for suspicious activity" as soon as it learned of the unauthorized disclosure.

"No suspicious activity was found," it says. "While it is possible this information was obtained because of a compromised student or staff email account, our investigation into how this data was accessed is ongoing."

The district advises anyone with privacy concerns to contact it by emailing [e-mail].