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It appears that none of the Social Security numbers of children enrolled in Hertford County Public Schools are part of a national cybersecurity breach reported by this newspaper in our Jan. 11 edition.

That fact was confirmed Wednesday by HCPS officials.

The breach was reported Jan. 8 to public school systems across the state. That alert, which was not isolated only to North Carolina, came from PowerSchool, a student information system that has been in use in our state since 2013.

In a letter sent to the parents/guardians of HCPS students, local school officials said that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction confirmed that Hertford County Schools’s PowerSchool SIS teacher and student data was accessed by an unauthorized party and is part of the PowerSchool data breach. Included with this confirmation are only the data fields that were impacted and how many records were present in the impacted tables.

The report indicates that zero Social Security numbers of HCPS students were accessed as they are not stored in the database table that was downloaded.

PowerSchool has shared that all data has been contained and destroyed.

As a reminder, PowerSchool has indicated that they will send all necessary notifications to affected individuals once the analysis is complete to ensure appropriate and accurate compliance with local, state, and federal requirements and laws. PowerSchool also has a public statement and FAQs on their website for your reference.

PowerSchool has confirmed that there were no actions that Hertford County Schools or NCDPI could have taken to prevent this cybersecurity incident.

“Protecting student and educator data is a top priority, and we take this matter very seriously,” HCPS officials said in a statement. “HCPS and NCDPI are committed to protecting our students and staff, and we actively advocate for each of them as we navigate this situation with PowerSchool.”

To consolidate communication and ensure everyone is updated, HCPS has developed a page on its website that allows parents/guardians to subscribe for updates and contains all communications and other shared information. That page can be accessed at https://www.hertford.k12.nc.us/Page/3186.

Parents/guardians with questions or concerns about this matter can submit them using the PowerSchool Cybersecurity Incident Questions and Concerns Form or directly to Thomas Grimes at tgrimes@hertford.k12.nc.us with the subject line “PowerSchool Incident.”

Bertie County Public Schools also sent a letter on Jan. 15 to the parents/guardians of their students.

“Across their customer base, [PowerSchool] has determined that some personally identifiable information, such as Social Security numbers and medical information, was impacted for a portion of individuals,” the letter stated. “They are working urgently to complete their investigation and determine whether personally identifiable information belonging to our students was included.

“Protecting our students is something we take seriously. With PowerSchool’s help, more information and resources (including credit monitoring or identity protection services, if applicable) will be provided to you as it becomes available,” the Bertie letter concluded.

The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald reached out to public school officials Gates and Northampton counties for comment regarding this breach, but did not hear back from either prior to Friday afternoon’s press deadline for today’s edition.