Toys are seen from a window outside the Providence Public School Department on Westminster Street. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
The Providence Public School Department (PPSD) is providing free credit monitoring to approximately 12,000 current and former employees who may have had their personal data — like names, addresses and Social Security numbers — exposed in a recent breach of the school district’s network.
Employees have until Dec. 16, 2024, to sign up for their complimentary credit monitoring services from IdentityIQ . The district has not yet specified the total cost for the contracted monitoring services, which will be provided free of cost to affected employees for five years, school officials wrote in a letter to staff on Friday, Oct. 4. The letter also states the breach may have occurred 12 days earlier than it originally thought.
The letter came three weeks after ransomware group Medusa took credit for the hack and demanded $1 million on Sept. 16. Although the district initially acknowledged that “irregular activity” occurred on its network on Sept. 11, it did not use the term “unauthorized access” until a letter to the community on Sept. 25 — the same day the hackers claimed to have published the allegedly stolen data when the ransom went unpaid.