PowerSchool Breach: Hackers Steal All Historical Data

A recent cyberattack on PowerSchool, a major player in educational technology, has left many U.S. school districts reeling. Reports indicate that hackers accessed “all” historical data related to students and teachers stored in PowerSchool’s systems, raising serious concerns about the security of sensitive information.

PowerSchool’s software supports more than 50 million students across the United States. The breach occurred in December 2024 when attackers compromised the company’s customer support portal using stolen credentials. This intrusion allowed them to access a vast amount of personal data belonging to both current and former students and teachers in K-12 schools.

While PowerSchool has not publicly disclosed how many districts were affected, sources from impacted school districts have shared alarming details. One representative stated, “In our case, I just confirmed that they got all historical student and teacher data.” Another source from a district with nearly 9,000 students reported that the attackers accessed demographic data for all teachers and students, both active and historical, as long as they had been using PowerSchool.

Concerns about PowerSchool’s security measures have also been raised. When asked about their protocols, a spokesperson did not dispute the accounts from affected districts but declined to provide details about their security controls. They mentioned that PowerSchool does use multi-factor authentication (MFA) but did not elaborate on its implementation across their systems. The lack of basic protections has many questioning how such sensitive data could be so easily accessed.

Several school districts have begun to inform their communities about how the breach is affecting their students and staff. For instance, Menlo Park City School District confirmed that hackers accessed data on all current students and staff, as well as historical records dating back to the 2009-2010 school year.

Mark Racine, CEO of the education technology consulting firm RootED Solutions, noted that this breach could also impact school districts that are former customers of PowerSchool. He suggested that the scale of the breach might extend beyond PowerSchool's 18,000 current educational customers. Some districts have reported that the number of affected students could be four to ten times higher than their actively enrolled figures.

According to a PowerSchool FAQ shared with customers last week, the stolen data includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, some medical information, grade information, and other personally identifiable information belonging to students and teachers. The Rancho Santa Fe School District in California was one of the first to file its own data breach notice with state regulators and confirmed that attackers accessed teachers’ credentials for accessing PowerSchool.

PowerSchool has stated that it is working to identify specific individuals whose data may have been compromised. While they have taken steps to prevent the stolen data from being published—claiming it has been deleted without further dissemination—details on these measures remain vague.

As this situation continues to develop, it’s vital for schools and parents to stay informed about how this breach might affect them and what steps are being taken to secure sensitive educational data in the future. 

Samsung World S25 renders spill in front of Unloaded

New deliveries of the Samsung System S25 series have showed up in a hole from Android Titles in front of Samsung's World Unloaded occasion in the not-so-distant future. The clearest change here is that Samsung has changed the plan of the S25 Ultra, adjusting the telephone's corners a little.

From the renders, it appears as though you'll have the option to get the non-Ultra S25s in light blue, dull blue, light green, and silver. The Ultra will come in dark, dim, and two shimmering tones with either a white or blue colour.

The following are several of the pictures—you can see the rest at Android.

Aside from the new tones, the non-Ultra telephones are practically vague from the S24 line. Yet, one better detail that is changed is the manner in which the camera knocks appear to gesture at the vibe of a customary camera focal point barrel that flares out toward the end. Inside, search for a computer processor knock from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips to new Snapdragon 8 World Class versatile processors; however, not much else. You can peruse more about the internals in a different specs release that Android Titles likewise distributed yesterday.

Remain tuned for our inclusion of the following Cosmic system Unloaded occasion on January 22nd, at which we expect the organisation will uncover a lot of insights concerning these telephones. Normally, you can wager it will discuss new simulated intelligence highlights as well. Perhaps by then, I'll have quit contemplating associating "to viable boats" through Issue with SmartThings.

iPhone 17 Air: Thickness & Price Revealed

Apple is reportedly gearing up to launch an ultra-slim iPhone 17 model later this year, with new reports revealing some intriguing details.

South Korea's Sisa Diary today detailed that Apple is holding back nothing called "iPhone 17 Air" to be 6.25mm thick. Assuming that estimation turns out to be precise, the gadget would turn into the most slender iPhone ever, besting the ongoing 6.9mm record set by the iPhone 6. It additionally implies the gadget would be around 20% more slender than the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Or more, and around 25% more slender than the iPhone 16 Genius and iPhone 16 Star Max.

Most tales appear to concur that the "iPhone 17 Air" will be some place in the 6mm thickness range, with one talk going as low as 5mm.

The report said the super dainty iPhone 17's cost will be like that of the iPhone 16 Or more, what begins at $899 in the US. Apple isn't supposed to deliver an iPhone 17 Or more, and the "iPhone 17 Air" will actually be its substitution.

Samsung is likewise wanting to deliver a considerably more slender cell phone this year, as indicated by the report. Like the "iPhone 17 Air," the purported "Cosmic system S25 Thin" will clearly have a thickness during the 6mm territory.

There have been clashing bits of hearsay about "iPhone 17 Air" plan subtleties and details, yet most sources have concurred that the gadget will have around a 6.6-inch show. Apple store network investigator Ming-Chi Kuo said he anticipates that the gadget should have a standard A19 chip, a Powerful Island, a solitary back camera, and an Apple-planned 5G modem. The gadget is supposed to be outfitted with 8GB of Slam for Apple Insight support.

In general, the gadget would have a few trade offs contrasted with the Genius models to accomplish a lot more slender and lighter plan.

Apple ought to deliver all iPhone 17 models in September, and extra tales will probably surface about the "iPhone 17 Air" among occasionally.

Apple to Pay $95M in Siri Privacy Settlement

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, ETR:APC) will make a cash settlement of $95 million for a proposed class action lawsuit that accused its iPhone voice assistant, Siri of invading users’ privacy.

People state that Siri collected data from its users while active and passed it to third parties without their knowledge.

An initial application was made on Tuesday night at the Oakland, California federal court, which awaits the endorsement of US District Judge Jeffrey White.

Litigants in the class action may be awarded up to $20 per Siri enabled device.

The class period prevailing from September 17, 2014 when Apple incorporate the “Hey Siri” voice activation that triggered the recording of conversations without the consent of the users to December 31, 2024.

Apple dismissed all the allegations of misdoing in agreeing to settle the case.

The iPhone maker lost 2.3% or about $245 by late morning on Thursday.

Samsung at CES 2025: How to Stream the Press Conference Live

 

Every year Samsung’s CES presser is an odd duck. Of course the Korean electronics giant tends to keep its powder dry in the consumer electronics space. After all, there’s no question it’s going to announce its latest flagship handset, the Galaxy S25, sometime near the end of January.

The company is going to continue to stick with its tradition of TVs and appliances at CES 2025. On the consumer end, there are odds and ends like consumer robots that won't likely see the light at all. Samsung has adopted the tagline “AI for All: For the presentation, which will run January 6 starting at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET, every day, everywhere” will read.

That alone doesn’t give us much to work with. But what company isn’t prone to mention a killer feature like AI when addressing the media? Any one that didn’t feel the need to mention AI, will be eaten by the sharks at Mandalay Bay. But the good news is that we have it on good authority that the company has plans for being hardnosed on the AI refrigerator front come January.

The presentation is being streamed live from Samsung's news room.