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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The PowerSchool Email & the Services Offered

I received an email that claims to be from PowerSchool. Is it legitimate?

We understand PowerSchool has sent emails to students, parents/guardians, and educators whose information was involved in the incident. We understand from PowerSchool the email was or will be sent from one of the following similar email addresses: ps-sis-incident@mail.csid.com; ps-sis-incident@mail1.csid.com; or ps-sis-incident@mail2.csid.com. If you receive or have received an email from any one of these email addresses with the subject line “PowerSchool Cybersecurity Incident”, we have been assured by PowerSchool that it is a legitimate email. Whether or not you received the email from PowerSchool, you may also visit PowerSchool’s website to learn how to activate the identity protection and/or credit monitoring services. The PowerSchool website also includes information .

I have a question about how to sign up for the identity protection and/or credit monitoring services offered by PowerSchool.

PowerSchool has advised that you can call 833-918-7884 if you have any questions.

For those able to utilize credit monitoring services (anyone age 18 and over), you will be prompted to validate before activating by entering your name and date of birth. Anyone, including those under 18, can utilize the identity protection services. We encourage you to sign up for the services offered by PowerSchool.

The Incident

What happened?

On January 7, 2025, PowerSchool informed LRSD that it had experienced a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to and exfiltration (acquisition) of certain customer information between around December 19 and December 28, 2024. Louis Riel School Division is a customer of PowerSchool, like many other educational institutions across North America. PowerSchool provides a Student Information System (SIS) used by Louis Riel School Division and thus we were informed by PowerSchool that information stored by Louis Riel School Division in our SIS was involved in the incident.

We understand PowerSchool has sent emails to students, parents/guardians, and educators whose information was involved in the incident. We understand from PowerSchool the email was or will be sent from one of the following similar email addresses: ps-sis-incident@mail.csid.com; ps-sis-incident@mail1.csid.com; or ps-sis-incident@mail2.csid.com.. Whether or not you receive an email, you may also visit PowerSchool’s website to learn how to activate the identity protection and/or credit monitoring services being offered. The PowerSchool website also includes information in French. For those able to utilize credit monitoring services (anyone age 18 and over), you will be prompted to validate before activating by entering your name and date of birth. Anyone, including those under 18, can utilize the identity protection services. PowerSchool has advised that you can call 833-918-7884 if you have any questions.

We have been informed that PowerSchool has contained the incident and that there is no evidence of malware or continued unauthorized activity in the PowerSchool environment. There have been no operational impacts on Louis Riel School Division as a result of this incident.

Who did this and for what purpose?

This incident occurred at PowerSchool. Unfortunately, organizations across the public and private sectors are increasingly being impacted by incidents like this.

How did you respond to the incident?

When we learned of the incident, we conducted an investigation with the assistance of experts and worked diligently to request more details from PowerSchool. We have been assured by PowerSchool that the incident has been contained. We took steps to confirm there was no ongoing threat and to reduce the risk of a similar future threat, including by confirming that PowerSchool: engaged its cybersecurity response protocols, engaged a cybersecurity expert to conduct a forensic investigation, deactivated a compromised account, conducted a full password reset, initiated enhanced processes for access, further strengthened password policies and controls, and notified law enforcement. PowerSchool has also advised that it has taken steps to prevent the information involved from further unauthorized access or misuse, that it does not anticipate the information being shared or made public, and that it believes the information has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination.

PowerSchool has notified Canadian privacy regulators about this incident. (Louis Riel School Division has already informed the Manitoba Ombudsman.) PowerSchool has or will be notifying individuals by email and we understand the email was or will be sent from one of the following similar email addresses: ps-sis-incident@mail.csid.com; ps-sis-incident@mail1.csid.com; or ps-sis-incident@mail2.csid.com. Whether or not you receive an email, you may also visit PowerSchool’s website to learn how to activate the identity protection and/or credit monitoring services. The PowerSchool website also includes information in French. For those able to utilize credit monitoring services (anyone age 18 and over), you will be prompted to validate before activating by entering your name and date of birth. Anyone, including those under 18, can utilize the identity protection services. PowerSchool has advised that you can call 833-918-7884 if you have any questions.

Has the incident been resolved?

We have been informed that PowerSchool has contained the incident and that there is no evidence of malware or continued unauthorized activity in the PowerSchool environment. There have been no operational impacts on LRSD as a result of this incident.

The Response

Has law enforcement been notified?

Yes, PowerSchool has advised us that it has notified law enforcement.

Has the Manitoba Ombudsman been advised?

Yes, the Manitoba Ombudsman has been advised.

The Impact

Why did this happen to LRSD?

PowerSchool is a vendor used by many educational institutions in North America. We are a customer of PowerSchool and, as a result of the incident experienced by PowerSchool, we were impacted. We have no reason to believe that LRSD was a specific target in this incident.

The Data

Has information been accessed? Was information from LRSD exposed?

You will see that PowerSchool includes in the email a description of some of the information that was potentially involved in the incident. The information involved varies by person.

For students, the information involved will generally be limited to information parents/guardians provided LRSD upon registration of their child as a student or any subsequent updates to that information. For many students, the information involved was name, date of birth, gender, address, doctor’s name and phone number, school ID number, and/or enrolment/registration records. For a small number of students, there was also relevant alerts (e.g., related to discipline, guardian, custody, or other issues).

For staff, the information involved was name, school email address, and/or school ID number.

The email from PowerSchool also refers to Social Insurance Number (SIN) as potentially involved but should also include a statement if there is no evidence that your SIN was involved – please review the email carefully. If your SIN was among the small number stored in our SIS, we previously emailed you about this on or around Jan. 29, 2025. If you did not receive this email from us, then your SIN was not stored in our SIS and is NOT involved in the incident – the email from PowerSchool should thus say there is no evidence your SIN was involved. Based on our own investigation of the information stored in our SIS, no parent/guardian, staff, or student banking or credit card information was stored in our SIS and thus such information was NOT involved in the incident PowerSchool has nevertheless offered identity protection and/or credit monitoring to all individuals with any information involved. We encourage you to sign up for the services offered by PowerSchool.

May 2, 2025 

Dear Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) Community, 

In our previous updates about the PowerSchool cybersecurity incident, we mentioned that PowerSchool would be sending emails to students, parents/guardians, and educators whose information was involved in the incident it previously experienced. We are aware that PowerSchool has now begun sending out notices to students and parents/guardians. You may shortly receive this notice or may have already received it.

We understand from PowerSchool that the email was or will be sent from one of the following similar email addresses: ps-sis-incident@mail.csid.com; ps-sis-incident@mail1.csid.com; or ps-sis-incident@mail2.csid.com. If you receive or have received an email from any one of these email addresses with the subject line “PowerSchool Cybersecurity Incident,” we have been assured by PowerSchool that it is a legitimate email.

As mentioned previously, PowerSchool has also advised that you can call 833-918-7884 if you have any questions. Information can also be found on PowerSchool's website: .

For more information about LRSD's response to the incident, please visit our website: /page/51723/powerschool-data-breach-updates.

We will also be sending a further communication with more information in the near future. Thank you for your continued understanding and patience as we navigate this situation. 

Regards,

Christian Michalik

Superintendent & CEO

February 6, 2025  

Dear Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) Community,  

We are writing to provide a further update about the cybersecurity incident that PowerSchool, our student information system (SIS) provider, recently experienced. 

In our , we mentioned that PowerSchool would be providing notice to students, parents/guardians, and educators whose information was involved and that the notice would include information about identity protection and/or credit monitoring services offered. PowerSchool has now advised us that it has initiated the process of notifying those individuals. 

PowerSchool will be notifying individuals by email and we understand the email will be sent from ps-sis-incident@mail.csid.com. We understand these emails will be sent by PowerSchool in the coming weeks.  

Whether or not you receive an email, you may also visit to learn how to activate the identity protection and/or credit monitoring services. The PowerSchool website also includes information . For those able to utilize credit monitoring services (individuals over 18), you will be prompted to validate before activating by entering your first name, last name, and date of birth. Anyone, including those under 18, can utilize the identity protection services. You may not be able to access the credit monitoring services immediately, as PowerSchool is still updating its list of eligible individuals. PowerSchool indicated that its updates should be completed by the end of February. PowerSchool has advised that you can call 833-918-7884 if you have any questions. 

We continue to work diligently to request more details from PowerSchool. We also continue to investigate this incident ourselves, with assistance from experts. We may be in touch again with further updates. 

There continue to be no operational impacts on LRSD as a result of this incident. PowerSchool has assured us that the incident has been contained. 

In LRSD, we take cybersecurity and protecting information seriously. We will post updates about the PowerSchool cybersecurity incident on our website and social media accounts. We have provided on our website some answers to questions you may have. If you have any additional questions, they can be directed to this form.  

Thank you for your continued understanding and patience as we navigate this situation. 

Regards, 

Christian Michalik 

Superintendent & CEO 

January 30, 2025 

Dear Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) Community, 

We are writing to provide an update about the cybersecurity incident that PowerSchool, our student information system (SIS) provider, recently experienced. 

We appreciate that more details about this incident that is impacting educational institutions across North America are needed. We have been working diligently to request more details from PowerSchool and ask questions about the details it has provided to date. We have also been investigating this incident ourselves, with assistance from experts. 

While PowerSchool has advised that its investigation is still ongoing, it has provided some additional details and next steps: 

• Identity Protection and Credit Monitoring Services: PowerSchool has engaged Experian to offer two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was involved. PowerSchool has also engaged TransUnion to offer two years of complimentary credit monitoring services for all students and educators whose information was involved and who have reached the age of majority. 
• Notification to Individuals Involved: Starting in the next few weeks, PowerSchool will provide notice to students, parents/guardians, and educators whose information was involved, as well as a phone number to answer any questions they may have about the incident. The notice will include the identity protection and credit monitoring services offered, as mentioned above. 
• PowerSchool is in the process of notifying Canadian regulators about this incident. (LRSD has already notified the Manitoba Ombudsman.)  
• You may visit for up-to-date information on the incident.

Based on our own investigation to date of the information stored in our SIS, we can advise that, except for 12 individuals whose Social Insurance Number (SIN) were identified as stored in our SIS, no parent/guardian, staff, or student SIN, banking, or credit information has been identified as stored in our SIS. PowerSchool has nevertheless advised us that the identity protection and credit monitoring offers mentioned above will be sent to all individuals with any information involved. With respect to the 12 individuals whose SINs were identified as stored in our SIS, it is not yet known if these were involved in the incident. We have nevertheless already contacted the individuals whose SIN was identified as stored in our SIS out of an abundance of caution and provided two years of complimentary credit monitoring services offered by TransUnion. If you did not receive a notice from us stating that your SIN was stored in our SIS, then we have NOT identified your SIN as stored in our SIS. 

We await additional details from PowerSchool about the findings of its investigations, the information involved in this incident, and the timing of the notices it will send. We will provide you with a further update on this when available. Rest assured that when we have details to share, we are committed to sharing them. 

There continue to be no operational impacts on LRSD as a result of this incident. PowerSchool has assured us that the incident has been contained. 

In LRSD, we take cybersecurity and protecting information seriously. We will post updates about the PowerSchool cybersecurity incident on our website and social media accounts. We have provided on our website some answers to questions you may have. If you have any additional questions, they can be directed to . 

Thank you for your continued understanding and patience as we navigate this situation. 

Regards,

Christian Michalik

Superintendent & CEO

January 13, 2025

Dear Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) community, 

We are writing to provide a brief update about the cybersecurity incident that PowerSchool, our student information system provider, recently experienced.

PowerSchool’s investigation is ongoing and we await additional details from PowerSchool about the information accessed as a result of the incident. We share your concerns about this incident that is impacting educational institutions across North America. We also understand that you may be looking for additional details as well. Rest assured that when we have details to share, we are committed to sharing them.

There have been no operational impacts on LRSD as a result of this incident. PowerSchool has assured us that the incident has been contained.

In LRSD, we take cybersecurity and protecting information seriously. We will post updates about the PowerSchool cybersecurity incident on our website and social media accounts. We have provided below and on our website some answers to questions you may have. If you have any additional questions, they can be .

Thank you for your understanding and patience as we navigate this situation.

Regards,

Christian Michalik
Superintendent & CEO

January 8, 2025

Dear Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) community, 

We are writing to inform you that on January 7, 2025, LRSD was notified by our student information system (SIS) provider, PowerSchool, that a cybersecurity event had occurred in late December and that some of our PowerSchool data was accessed.

PowerSchool, not LRSD, was the target of the cybersecurity event. PowerSchool customers across Canada and the United States have been impacted, including LRSD. 

To this point, PowerSchool has worked with cybersecurity experts to resolve the situation. PowerSchool has provided us with assurances that the accessed data has now been deleted. Furthermore, PowerSchool has confidence that the data was not copied or uploaded elsewhere. PowerSchool is actively engaged with cybersecurity professionals to continue to monitor this event.

LRSD has taken the necessary preliminary steps to respond to this situation, which includes involving the appropriate professionals. No other school division systems or data was accessed or compromised.

We are currently investigating the impact of this cybersecurity event in LRSD. At this time, we believe that the data accessed included some specific personal information of students and the name and email address of LRSD staff who are PowerSchool users. 

Please be assured that the safety and security of our data—particularly the information of your children and of our staff is of paramount importance to us and to PowerSchool. We regret that this has occurred, and we will continue to collaborate on this matter.

It is our commitment to you to continue to communicate. As information becomes available, we will be updating on this page. If you have any questions, please direct them to communications@lrsd.net.

Regards,

Ron Cadez

Acting Superintendent while Christian Michalik is away from the office