Florida Virtual School warns of massive data breach

By Nick Saffan, Times Staff Writer

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has alerted students, parents, and alumni after a massive security breach.

A notice posted by the online school says the data breach occurred between May 6, 2016, and Feb. 12, 2018.

“This incident could affect information in FLVS school records, including but not limited to students’ names, dates of birth, school account usernames and passwords, physical school identification, as well as parents’ names and parent emails.” FLVS said in the notice.

At this point FLVS has not identified any evidence that the Social Security numbers or financial account information of parents or students has been affected. However, personal information from some Leon County teachers - including names, social security numbers and certain demographic informaiton - may have been compromised. The Leon County School District will be directly contacting these teachers.

FLVS has contacted the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and has also hired an independent forensic cybersecurity investigation firm to assist in their investigation and response.

FLVS said it are now offering one year of free identity protection services for those impacted through www.experianidworks.com/FLVS. This will be available to parents and students whose information was in the FLVS database during the affected period.

“Qualifying students or their parents can learn more and if impacted by the incident, can sign up for identity protection services at this website www.experianidworks.com/FLVS or by calling Experian at (888) 829-6553 and referencing engagement number DB05741.”

For more information on the identity theft and information about the identity protection services read the FLVS notice.