Whoa FCPS- data breach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does school office admin assistant Linda Blahblah have access to all those kids’ IEP records? Presumably not even at Callie’s child’s school judging by the size of the breach. FCPS needs to crack down on its own security procedures.

Because some employee needs to compile records to comply with demands for data. What, like they should task an educator or a high level team just to accommodate Callie’s FOIA requests? And when someone like Callie demands data constantly, mistakes can happen.

Why is it okay for Callie to hang on to kids’ personal information and look through it?

Frankly I don't know why it's not considered criminal. Maybe a lawyer who has a background in data breach statutes can chime in here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does school office admin assistant Linda Blahblah have access to all those kids’ IEP records? Presumably not even at Callie’s child’s school judging by the size of the breach. FCPS needs to crack down on its own security procedures.

Because some employee needs to compile records to comply with demands for data. What, like they should task an educator or a high level team just to accommodate Callie’s FOIA requests? And when someone like Callie demands data constantly, mistakes can happen.

Why is it okay for Callie to hang on to kids’ personal information and look through it?

Yes, FCPS’s gigantic legal team at Gatehouse that they spend so much money on should be handling massive FOIA requests and not the lady who sits in the admin office at the school. That lady can hand out individual copies of individual kids’ IEP’s who go to that school, although the security procedures still need to be tightened up. But individual school admin should not have full access to everything, that’s just crazy and asking for problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does school office admin assistant Linda Blahblah have access to all those kids’ IEP records? Presumably not even at Callie’s child’s school judging by the size of the breach. FCPS needs to crack down on its own security procedures.

Because some employee needs to compile records to comply with demands for data. What, like they should task an educator or a high level team just to accommodate Callie’s FOIA requests? And when someone like Callie demands data constantly, mistakes can happen.

Why is it okay for Callie to hang on to kids’ personal information and look through it?

Yes, FCPS’s gigantic legal team at Gatehouse that they spend so much money on should be handling massive FOIA requests and not the lady who sits in the admin office at the school. That lady can hand out individual copies of individual kids’ IEP’s who go to that school, although the security procedures still need to be tightened up. But individual school admin should not have full access to everything, that’s just crazy and asking for problems.

What the heck do you know about this employee and what their actual security safeguards are like? Do you know for a fact that this lady doesn’t need access for her actual job as a school administrator? You feel comfortable dictating what her job duties are from DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does school office admin assistant Linda Blahblah have access to all those kids’ IEP records? Presumably not even at Callie’s child’s school judging by the size of the breach. FCPS needs to crack down on its own security procedures.

Because some employee needs to compile records to comply with demands for data. What, like they should task an educator or a high level team just to accommodate Callie’s FOIA requests? And when someone like Callie demands data constantly, mistakes can happen.

Why is it okay for Callie to hang on to kids’ personal information and look through it?

Yes, FCPS’s gigantic legal team at Gatehouse that they spend so much money on should be handling massive FOIA requests and not the lady who sits in the admin office at the school. That lady can hand out individual copies of individual kids’ IEP’s who go to that school, although the security procedures still need to be tightened up. But individual school admin should not have full access to everything, that’s just crazy and asking for problems.

What the heck do you know about this employee and what their actual security safeguards are like? Do you know for a fact that this lady doesn’t need access for her actual job as a school administrator? You feel comfortable dictating what her job duties are from DCUM?

I’m having a hard time thinking of a situation where an employee of an individual school would need to have access to tens of thousands of IEP’s, presumably from kids not even enrolled at that school. It sounds more likely to me that FCPS just doesn’t have their private student information locked down all that well, and/or that they don’t have an automatic security “trip” to alert the IT department that a school employee has accessed 30,000+ student records and maybe that’s a mistake and should be looked into promptly.

[Anonymous]

And not just IEP’s but, according to the article, information about sexual assaults, legal costs/fees, back and forth emails about a student … how are these files not more locked down?

[Anonymous]

Based on the article, Callie showed the kids’ personal information to the press! The article says The 74 redacted the kids’ names. Is this not an additional data breach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does school office admin assistant Linda Blahblah have access to all those kids’ IEP records? Presumably not even at Callie’s child’s school judging by the size of the breach. FCPS needs to crack down on its own security procedures.

Because some employee needs to compile records to comply with demands for data. What, like they should task an educator or a high level team just to accommodate Callie’s FOIA requests? And when someone like Callie demands data constantly, mistakes can happen.

Why is it okay for Callie to hang on to kids’ personal information and look through it?

Yes, FCPS’s gigantic legal team at Gatehouse that they spend so much money on should be handling massive FOIA requests and not the lady who sits in the admin office at the school. That lady can hand out individual copies of individual kids’ IEP’s who go to that school, although the security procedures still need to be tightened up. But individual school admin should not have full access to everything, that’s just crazy and asking for problems.

What the heck do you know about this employee and what their actual security safeguards are like? Do you know for a fact that this lady doesn’t need access for her actual job as a school administrator? You feel comfortable dictating what her job duties are from DCUM?

I’m having a hard time thinking of a situation where an employee of an individual school would need to have access to tens of thousands of IEP’s, presumably from kids not even enrolled at that school. It sounds more likely to me that FCPS just doesn’t have their private student information locked down all that well, and/or that they don’t have an automatic security “trip” to alert the IT department that a school employee has accessed 30,000+ student records and maybe that’s a mistake and should be looked into promptly.

Maybe because someone needs to demonstrate county compliance with special education laws?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the article, Callie showed the kids’ personal information to the press! The article says The 74 redacted the kids’ names. Is this not an additional data breach?

Wow. Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And not just IEP’s but, according to the article, information about sexual assaults, legal costs/fees, back and forth emails about a student … how are these files not more locked down?

No one is disagreeing with you; FCPS has to change their process, 100%. But again, Callie had a choice and decided to post the information on the internet. Normal people don't do that. What she did could or should be a criminal act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And not just IEP’s but, according to the article, information about sexual assaults, legal costs/fees, back and forth emails about a student … how are these files not more locked down?

No one is disagreeing with you; FCPS has to change their process, 100%. But again, Callie had a choice and decided to post the information on the internet. Normal people don't do that. What she did could or should be a criminal act.

Well I do agree with you there, of course. She could have publicized the fact that FCPS has shoddy information security practices and given non-specific examples without literally posting everything to her website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special needs parents are going to bleed public schools dry.

I’m sure some people here will be mad at me for saying this, but I’m going to go ahead and say it. I think some parents are frustrated and upset that their child has struggles and it’s easier to direct those feelings outward in the form of anger at teachers and schools, than to come to terms with the reality that there’s only going to be so much that anyone can do to help.

Correct, and the federal laws that govern everything about special education are very burdensome and unrealistic for many school districts to carry out properly due to lack of funding and personnel.

Nope. IDEA has been around since the early 1970s. FCPS is also a 3.5 billion dollar school system. As a special education teacher, I've found that FCPS has uniquely bad management policies related to special education, which are unrelated to federal laws. It was unusually hard to get a request for a 1 on 1 aide approved, even though the central office pays hefty salaries to 'PSL' bureaucrats that don't contribute anything of value. They have an unreasonable case management system where 1 teacher in the department is responsible for writing the goals and present level portions of IEPs for up to 50 children in each grade. They also gave teachers zero time to work on IEP writing, and had unmanageably tight deadlines. Administrators were useless. So it's not the federal laws that are wrong, it's the petty rules individual districts concoct with their teachers that cause breakdowns. This is a superintendent and special education central office failure. That being said, if any advocate talked to me the way Callie apparently talks to teachers during one of my IEP meetings I would get her banned from my school lol.

[Anonymous]

There are definitely obstacles districts can put in place preventing parents from accessing federally mandated services for their kids. Acting like an idiot in an IEP meeting doesn't get them for you!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have an idea about exactly what info was shared? I got the letter today from Fcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have an idea about exactly what info was shared? I got the letter today from Fcps.

I called the 1-800 number on the letter and it's Experian, who gave me nothing when I asked for "what PII was actually put on the internet"? It was beyond useless. They said "I need to call FCPS." So, basically, useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And not just IEP’s but, according to the article, information about sexual assaults, legal costs/fees, back and forth emails about a student … how are these files not more locked down?

No one is disagreeing with you; FCPS has to change their process, 100%. But again, Callie had a choice and decided to post the information on the internet. Normal people don't do that. What she did could or should be a criminal act.

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