Hopkinton Public Schools administration sent a message to families Wednesday to alert them that a cyber hack has compromised the district’s student information system, reflecting reports of similar incidents across the country.

“Unfortunately, we have confirmed that unauthorized individuals were able to access and take certain data from our hosted student information system, PowerSchool,” stated Ashoke Ghosh, the HPS director of technology. “We deeply regret that this has occurred, and we understand the concern and frustration this may cause for our students and their families.”

PowerSchool notified the schools’ Information Technology Department of a “data extraction” that took place on Monday, according to the message.

“Essentially, their investigation determined that an unauthorized party gained access to certain PowerSchool Student Information System (“SIS”) customer data using a compromised credential,” Ghosh stated. “After reviewing our logs, we confirmed that some personal information was accessed and taken. This includes specific fields from our student and staff tables.

“While we do not believe any financial information or sensitive details like Social Security numbers or passwords were affected (as we don’t store that data in PowerSchool), we are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of the incident,” the notice continued. “At this time, we believe the attacker primarily gained access to names, some demographic information and addresses.”

PowerSchool reported the incident to “local law enforcement and cybersecurity experts” as part of its investigation, which now appears to be national in scope.

A digitaltrends.com article reported that while it is unclear how many people have been affected by the cybersecurity breach, “the PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS) platform contains the data of over 60 million students and 18,000 customers.”

The article quoted the following statement issued Tuesday by PowerSchool:

“As a main point of contact for your school district, we are reaching out to make you aware that on December 28, 2024, PowerSchool became aware of a potential cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain information through one of our community-focused customer support portals, PowerSource.”

Some school districts may have been more severely impacted than Hopkinton, according to a bleepingcomputer.com article. In some districts, students’ Social Security numbers, medical  information and grades had been hacked.

Similar reports of school data hacks have arisen Tuesday night across the country. School districts in New Hampshire, Connecticut, North Carolina and Wisconsin. In Massachusetts, Holliston was among those reporting a data breach.

Ghosh reported that HPS has reviewed data logs from PowerSchool to confirm that data was extracted. The review “identified the exact fields in the extraction that had data stolen and verified that no financial data or Social Security numbers were extracted.”

The messaged urged parents to “be vigilant” and take steps such as monitoring their children’s financial accounts for suspicious activity and report discrepancies to the police.

“We understand that this may be distressing for both students and parents, and we are here to support you,” Ghosh stated. “ If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact the district IT team, as we are ready to help.

“We value the trust you place in us and want to assure you that we are taking every possible step to address this situation and safeguard your family’s information,” the statement continued. “We will continue to prioritize the security of our community and will keep you updated as more information becomes available.”

This issue likely will be addressed at Thursday night’s School Committee meeting.