What at first looked like a single data breach affecting Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland turned out to be a series of breaches that impacted thousands of more students than was originally reported.On Oct. 4, 2019, MCPS disclosed that a district student had one day earlier allegedly executed a brute-force credentials-stealing attack against Wheaton High School's Naviance platform and downloaded demographics data from 1,343 accounts registered to students. Naviance is an online college and career readiness program.But in an updated online disclosure published late last month, MCPS announced that a forensic investigation conducted by the Montgomery County Police Department revealed additional intrusions that took place between Sept. 12 and 14. The district has now revised the total number of compromised accounts to 5,962 across six schools.
In addition to Wheaton, Montgomery Blair High School, Julius West Middle School, Argyle Middle School, Parkland Middle School and A. Mario Loiederman Middle School were also hit by the breach.Exposed data included names, birth dates, home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers, as well as academic information such as student ID number, weighted GPA, highest SAT score and more."At this time, MCPD does not believe that the student shared any accessed information with others," the district's updated notification states. "The student currently faces additional disciplinary action based on the expanded scope of the brute-force attacks as well as possible criminal charges."Following the original discovery of the breach, MCPS forced a district-wide password reset for all Naviance student accounts to prevent any additional unauthorized access.
As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.
Major Connecticut-based nonprofit healthcare network Yale New Haven Health has confirmed having data from more than 5.5 million individuals compromised following a network intrusion last month, making the incident the largest health data breach so far this year, The Register reports.
More than 91.3 million individuals across the U.S. have been impacted by data breaches during the first quarter of 2025, which is 26% higher than the same period last year, even though breach incidents slightly declined year-over-year, according to Infosecurity Magazine.
Kelly Benefits, a Maryland-based benefits administration and payroll solutions provider, has confirmed that almost 264,000 individuals served by its customers Amergis, CareFirst, Beam Benefits, Intercon Truck of Baltimore, Beltway Companies, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Transforming Lives, and Publications Circulation Fulfilment had their data compromised following a cyberattack in December, SecurityWeek reports.
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