D70's data breach could lead to identity theft

Pueblo County School District 70 (D70) reported a data breach and ransomware attack July 17th. This comes a month after D70 discovered the incident that actually took place at the end of April.

News5's Lindsey Jensen wanted to sit down with the D70 superintendent to ask some questions. After several e-mails back and forth, she was told the superintendent wasn't available but decided to go to the district in person.

"There's nobody available," said D70 PIO Lynnette Bonfiglio over the phone. "I wish I could do better for you but I did try to tell you three or four different times, I want to help you, I think the world of your reporting but we just don't have the availability today."

D70 said personal information of students from 1991 to 2006 and current staff is at risk.

To get a better idea of this data breach situation, Jensen went back to the Springs and spoke with the National Cybersecurity Center CEO.

"It's not like if it's going to happen, it's when," said Aleta Jeffress.

Jeffress told her school districts could be easy targets for cybersecurity hackers.

"A lot of the times, they're known for having old equipment, old servers, old computers, they just don't have the spending to or the funding a lot of the times to replace that and modernize."

Jeffress said this breach could become as serious as identity theft, so she says to keep an eye out for unusual credit reports or financial statements.

"They could also take credit card data, I mean I know for my son, my card was on file for his lunch account," said Jeffress.

The district says they are unaware of any misuse of information and there were a minimal number of staff and students on the server affected by the breach.

The district says they have implemented two-step authentications on staff accounts and moved critical information off on local servers and onto more secure cloud-based locations. In an email, D70 said it plans to hire a full-time employee to monitor its cybersecurity system.

For more information or assistance you can contact the D70 IT team at 719-549-6121

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