Final Report from the KPS Data Breach
Dear KPS Parents and Kearney Community,
After receiving our final report from our Fortinet Incident Response Team, the hacking organization, Interlock, has publicly taken claim for and verified to have accessed sensitive data of current and former KPS staff and Special Education students.
The Interlock organization has targeted hundreds of businesses and educational institutions across the United States, and in many cases, pursued a financial “ransom”. However, in the KPS breach, school and district technology officials never received a ransom request.
Files That Were Accessed
A finance folder containing staff information for current and former staff (2005 - present). This information includes names, addresses, birthdate, social security numbers, drivers license numbers, passports, bank account information, and bank routing numbers.
A Special Education folder including HIPPA and FERPA information from 2009 forward with student names, addresses, disability information, and medicaid lists with ID numbers.
An HR folder containing general, public information (job descriptions, pay scales, handbooks)
A file from 2016 that included standard public directory information: student names, parent names, and addresses from that year. It did not include student/parent financial information.
What You Should Do
Monitor your bank and credit accounts closely for suspicious activity.
Consider changing passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication where available.
Be cautious with unexpected emails, links, or attachments.
Shut your computer completely off at night. That is when the majority of hacking incidents occur.
Go out on the three credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. Create an account and freeze your credit file for free.
What to Know
The Fortinet Security Incident Response Team in conjunction with the KPS Technology department completed an investigation of the incident. Fortinet’s team made several recommendations which have been completed.
Communication of the incident has been reported to Kearney Police Department, Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, the Nebraska State Patrol Cybersecurity Threat team, and the FBI.
We will continue strengthening our cybersecurity systems to prevent future incidents.
KPS faces hundreds of thousands of attempted intrusions each day and our security systems have successfully defended against them. Unfortunately, this group’s tactics were sophisticated.
We take this incident very seriously and are implementing additional measures to protect our staff, student, and district data. We deeply appreciate the understanding, patience, and continued vigilance of our staff and community as we strengthen our security posture moving forward.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jason Mundorf
Superintendent
Kearney Public Schools