In a letter issued to parents Wednesday night, the Waterloo Regional District School Board says it recently discovered that it had been hacked.
The unsigned letter says, “I am writing to make you aware of an unfortunate cyber incident that may impact our students and staff.”
It goes on to say that the board’s IT department discovered the incident on July 10.
“We have now confirmed that an unauthorized person accessed and removed certain data from our systems,” the letter read.
“We are working tirelessly to determine the content of this data, and we will update you as we learn more.”
The WRDSB says that it is currently working to restore its systems and to safeguard information.
“While we believe that any risk to our students’ sensitive information is low, it was important to us to make you aware of this incident,” the note read.
“The privacy of our students’ information is very important to us and we are sorry that this incident happened. We will keep you informed if any further relevant information becomes available.”
A spokesperson for the board told Global News that it could be some time before it discovers how the attack occured and what has been impacted.
“We will continue to share information directly with those who are impacted,” the WRDSB spokesperson said.
“We would ask for patience as experts have advised that it could take weeks to fully investigate and gain answers as to how this occurred and what has been impacted.”