School Experiences Info Security Breach

By Rob Lowry

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CEDARBURG - A security breach in Cedarburg put school employees’ personal information in the hands of students. This breach could put employees at risk for identity theft. The information came from a computer at Cedarburg High School. Someone got ahold of employees’ addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. The school district said access was gained when the information was "inadvertently placed in shared network folders." Students spread pamphlets around school, telling others how to access the data. Freshman Dan Hesse said someone showed him the pamphlet. He didn’t take a copy because he didn’t think it would be right. “It said all the personal information about the teachers, and it said how to get into the Internet that you’re not supposed to get into,” he told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Lauren Leamanczyk. Most students who talked to TODAY’S TMJ4 had not heard of the security breach or viewed the information. Still, enough had done so to cause concern. School administrators are warning banks and credit agencies. They say they are taking steps to ensure this type of personal information won’t be made public again. Superintendent Daryl Herrick said in a statement, “The District is committed to ensuring that employee data is not subject to further compromises. The District takes this breach very seriously and apologizes for any inconvenience caused. We have taken the necessary steps to review the security of the District’s network and have adopted additional policies and procedures to ensure that the integrity of our employees’ personal data is not compromised in the future.” The district learned of the problem Tuesday morning when a student brought it to their attention. It is unknown how long students had the personal information. Police say they have not found that the information has been misused, but they continue to investigate.