Confidential information for more than 2,500 students, employees and volunteers in Prince William County was put in the public domain for more than a month this summer.
Personal information for more than 1,600 students and 65 employees at two Prince William County schools were exposed from about July 14 to Aug. 18 after a Prince William County school employee accidentally released the information.
Confidential information for 257 other division employees, and names, addresses and e-mail addresses of 736 parent volunteers also were released.
The school division’s investigation into the breach found that a school-based employee released the information through a file-sharing program while conducting school business at home on a personal computer.
The lapse was “completely inadvertent,” said spokesman Ken Blackstone.
“If somebody else had the file-sharing software and had a connection to this person,” they might have accessed the information, he said. “It wasn’t like it was on a Web site.”
The information was discovered by an outside “good Samaritan” security specialist, who notified the schools, Blackstone said.
“The school division’s investigation has produced no evidence to date that this information was actually accessed by anyone during the period in question, other than the security specialist who first alerted us to its presence,” said Deputy Superintendent Rae E. Darlington.
“All individuals who may have been affected by this incident have been individually contacted by letter and appropriate authorities and agencies notified.”
Darci Whitehead, the principal of Porter Traditional School in Woodbridge, one of the schools affected, commended the school system’s staff for notifying the affected individuals.
“I think this division is very thorough — they’ve done a pretty remarkable job of informing the individuals,” she said. “There’s no indication that the information was compromised.”
Information was released for students who attend, have attended or applied to Porter Traditional School since 2004, parent volunteers at Porter and students enrolled in Montclair Elementary in Dumfries for several years before the 2004-2005 school year.
Blackstone said that the schools are looking into how their security systems should be modified in light of the breach.
“Of course, when you’re dealing with technology, which changes constantly, you certainly try to not leave any stone unturned,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the school district’s network or network infrastructure. It was outside the realm of our network.”
