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Published by Mr. Callis on Aug 13, 2019
On July 23rd, 2019 LaGrange Highlands School District 106 received notification that a third-party data breach occurred. Pearson Clinical Assessment, the parent company of the AIMSweb 1.0 product that is used for assessment purposes in both the elementary and middle schools, notified District 106 that both student and staff data had been compromised in the breach. District 106 used AIMsweb 1.0 until it was discontinued in 2016 and is one of about 13,000 Pearson clients impacted by this incident. Although Pearson has provided no evidence that any data was misused, out of abundance of caution, the district wants to make you are aware of this incident.
In mid-March of 2019, Pearson became aware that an unauthorized third party gained access to a set of data related to AIMSweb 1.0. They immediately launched a review, which included outside cybersecurity experts, to determine the nature and extent of any data potentially affected. At this time a specific date range for this breach is not known. Pearson is also working with law enforcement.
The student data affected is limited to directory information including first and last name, and in some instances, date of birth. Other districts are reporting that email addresses of students were also compromised but none of our student records contained that information and were therefore not compromised. No grade or assessment information was released in this incident, and the AIMSweb platform does not contain Social Security numbers, credit card data, or other financial information.
The accounts of test proctors and administrators affected may include first and last name, job title, work email and work address.
As a school district, we take very seriously the security of all student, family and staff data. Only the most limited data is provided to vendors for required services. Contracts with outside vendors are closely vetted to ensure measures are in place at all times to safeguard that data. Pearson Clinical Assessment has worked with cybersecurity experts to evaluate the incident and assured us that changes have been implemented to prevent this from happening again with their product. Personalized email notifications were sent to each affected family and staff member that we have email addresses for. If you know of a family or previous staff member that would benefit from this information, please pass it along to them.
A free credit monitoring service from Experian is available to any staff member who was employed in District 106 from 2001-2016 and was affected by this breach. Pearson is providing this free service as a precautionary measure. If you are interested in learning more about this option, please visit https://www.experianidworks.com/credit and use the activation code: PF7N9N97G. You must enroll by January 31, 2020 to take advantage of this program. If you have questions about the program, please contact Experian’s customer care team at 866-883-3309 by January 31st, 2020.
If you have questions about the breach itself, please contact Pearson Clinical Assessment at aimsweb1request@pearson.com
