CCSD21 informed of vendor data breach

In late July, School District 21 learned that Pearson, a software vendor, experienced a data breach.

Parents of current CCSD21 students who were affected by the breach received the following letter by email, if a parent email address was on file, or on paper via U.S. mail:

On July 31, 2019, Pearson, a software vendor, announced a student data breach of information for users of its AIMSweb 1.0 platform. In November 2018, AIMSweb 1.0 was breached, resulting in the unauthorized disclosure of student information. Pearson was alerted to the breach in March 2019, and began notifying affected school districts in July 2019. CCSD21 did not receive such a notification from Pearson, but was able to determine that CCSD21 student data was included in the Pearson breach.

The breach allowed access to students’ first and last names, and in some instances included dates of birth. The identity of the breaching party remains unknown. Pearson has indicated it has no reason to believe student assessment or other private data was accessed during the breach. Families receiving this notice have been identified by Pearson as subjects of the data breach.

The District is working with Pearson to ensure no additional information was affected by the breach. CCSD21 discontinued use of the AIMSweb 1.0 platform in August 2018 and Pearson suspended operation of AIMSweb 1.0 this summer. Pearson is also working with law enforcement in this matter.

Pearson is offering complimentary credit monitoring services from Experian for affected individuals. If you are interested in learning more about the complementary credit monitoring service, or have any other questions, you can call Experian directly at 866-883-3309 or contact Pearson via email at [email protected].