Dominic Paluzzi featured on Cleveland newscast regarding PowerSchool data breach

Dominic Paluzzi, co-chair of McDonald Hopkins' Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice Group, was featured in News 5 Cleveland's broadcast regarding a data breach affecting one of the largest student-information systems in the world: PowerSchool.

PowerSchool stores data on individuals, including personal information and protected educational records, which can date back years. News 5 anchor, Katie Ussin, interviewed Dom on the commonality of these breaches, what parents can do if their children's school system uses PowerSchool, and more.

An excerpt from the article is below:

Paluzzi said the goal of these criminals is usually financial gain.

Paluzzi says they're usually after the data on a macro level, not individuals. He said they've received assurances from PowerSchool that there is no ongoing threat, and they believe the stolen data is not going to be leaked or made public.

While we await the final findings of exactly which districts and data were compromised, Paluzzi said families can act now.

"Parents should really be making sure that they are being diligent in reviewing credit reports, placing security and fraud alerts on theirs and their student's, to the extent they may be close to the age of 18 they will have a credit file as well with the credit bureaus," said Paluzzi. "Make sure you're checking your statements, checking your credit reports, and this is just good advice irrespective of whether we have a large global breach like we have."

To watch the segment, click here.