Schools
Data Breach: Mt. Diablo Unified School District Notifies Parents
Aeries Software advised more than 150 school districts, including Mount Diablo, about the breach which led to an arrest of one person.
By Sam Richards, Bay City News Foundation
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — The Concord-based Mount Diablo Unified School District will usher in a new mandatory password for all parent and student portal accounts after a data breach at an Orange County-based tech company in late 2019, according to an email sent Tuesday afternoon to district parents.
Aeries Software notified more than 150 school districts, including Mount Diablo, on April 27 about the breach. An email went out to parents Tuesday afternoon describing the breach and the coming mandatory password change, its details and timing to be shared with parents in the coming days.
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The Mount Diablo school district uses the Aeries Student Information System to provide students and their parents with access to information on school events and schedules.
Aeries learned in late November that an unauthorized person "exploited a vulnerability" in the Aeries software that would allow access to private student and parent information, including parent and/or student addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and passwords that had been "hashed" to make them indecipherable to third parties, Tuesday's email explained.
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Aeries and police launched a joint investigation. A person was subsequently arrested, and as of Tuesday that suspect remained in custody, Aeries said in its email.
The school district's email Tuesday said Aeries has no evidence that any "personal information has been misused."
It was unclear why parents were notified Tuesday when the school district had known of the data breach since late April. Emails to Aeries Student Information Systems and the Mount Diablo school district Tuesday afternoon were not immediately returned.
The Mount Diablo district has 45 schools and 16 independent programs in Concord, Pleasant Hill, Pittsburg, Martinez, Walnut Creek and Bay Point.
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