Your School May Have Exposed Student Data Through Outside Vendors. Here's What Parents Should Do

Schools and universities rely on many outside companies to provide services like online learning platforms, lunch payment systems, and student information databases. These third-party vendors have become a major weak point.

When hackers attack these outside companies, they can steal student data from multiple schools at once. This includes names, addresses, grades, and sometimes even Social Security numbers. If your child attends any school or college, their information may be stored with these third-party vendors. The problem affects K-12 schools, colleges, and universities across the country. Because schools share data with multiple outside companies, a single vendor breach can expose information from hundreds of institutions at the same time.

Here is what you should do right now. First, contact your child's school and ask what third-party vendors they use to store student information. Second, ask if any of these vendors have recently experienced a data breach. Third, request that the school notify you immediately if any vendor breach occurs in the future. Fourth, check your child's credit report if they are over 13, or consider a credit freeze for younger children if Social Security numbers were involved. You can request free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com.

To protect your family long term, stay in regular contact with your school about data privacy policies. Ask how they vet the security of outside companies before sharing student information. Teach older students to use strong, unique passwords for school accounts and to never share login credentials. Consider setting up fraud alerts on your own credit accounts, since parent information is often stored alongside student data.