WMAR reports:
A data breach may have affected up to 1000 students at Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) officials said.
The breach impacted students who attended FCPS between November 2005 and November 2006.
The breached information includes names, social security numbers and birth dates.
AP adds important details that the breach was brought to the school system’s attention by a former student who found his data on a website. Was it a site like HaveIBeenPwned? or was it a paste or a marketplace? They don’t say, but they report:
Doerrer says the school system notified the FBI as soon as it learned of the data breach, and has been working with state law enforcement and technology officials.
Read more on The Frederick News-Post. I still can find no statement on the district’s site.
So: the district may have had some breach that occurred before 2010 but went undetected until a former student found his data up for sale on what is presumably some dark web marketplace? Will the district offer their former students any services or help?
And what, exactly, does it mean that the investigation couldn’t conclude where the data “originated?” Does that mean it may not have come from the District’s system or server? If so, how can the district say that the breach occurred before 2010? Were there any vendors back then who would have had access to students’ SSNs?
And were/are the data still up for sale?
It’s all a puzzlement in search of more transparency.