ST. LOUIS – The recent PowerSchool hack exposed sensitive data of millions of students nationwide. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education tells us nearly 100 local education agencies use PowerSchool’s Student Information Software.

“Unfortunately, an incident like this was only a matter of time,” Doug Levin, an expert in education technology, said in an interview with FOX 2 News late last month. “From a school system perspective, there’s very little that they could have done to prevent this. The company, however, clearly experienced a failure of its controls.”

PowerSchool responded to the breach on its website saying, “The company takes our responsibility to protect student, family and educator data privacy extremely seriously, and we are committed to taking further steps to strengthen the security of our systems.”

“It’s some of the most attractive information that an identity thief can get their hands on,” Ian Bednowitz, general manager for LifeLock, said.

He cites a 2021 study by Javelin Strategy and Research that found children are 51 times more vulnerable to identity theft than their parents and it often goes undetected.

“The main reason it goes undetected is because no one is looking for the signs,” Bednowitz said.

Bednowitz says if your child gets a pre-approved credit card offer in the mail, a notice from the IRS, or calls from debt collectors about unpaid bills, there’s a good chance their identity has been stolen. He recommends limiting where you share their Social Security number.

“You can refuse to give it out and say, ‘I want to use another form of personally identifiable information,’ a date of birth, an address, a name; something that’s less vulnerable than a Social Security number. And most people don’t think to do that,” he said.

Bednowitz advises freezing your child’s credit with each of the big three credit reporting agencies, checking their credit reports regularly to monitor for any suspicious activity, and developing a family safe word to help ward off scam attempts.

“Getting some level of identity theft protection, whether LifeLock or somebody else, gives you that peace of mind,” Bednowitz said. “It gives you the expertise that if something goes wrong, you have someone in your corner to help you through the process.”

PowerSchool says it’s offering two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was involved in the breach.