AccidentalEducationEducationMisconfigurationSupply Chain (3P Vendor)Customer Data InvolvedEmployee Data InvolvedIdentity (basic)EducationMinorHighResolved

Palo Alto Unified School District

bd_5007695c8f5884e0 · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

High

Discovered

Apr 4, 2017

Filed

May 1, 2017

To disclose

27 days

Affected

14,000

Confidence

66%

Full breach record for Palo Alto Unified School District →2 incidents on file

Palo Alto Unified School District notified students and parents that a configuration error at former vendor Schoolzilla exposed backup files containing partial student records for approximately 14,000 students. The data included names, addresses, birth dates, and test scores. A security researcher discovered the exposure on April 4, 2017, and deleted the data. No SSNs or passwords were involved.

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California clockDiscovered Apr 4, 2017 → Notified Apr 17, 201713d ✓ CA 60-day OK27 days discovery → filing

Incident timeline

discovery → filing · 27 days

Apr 4, 2017

Begins

Apr 4, 2017

Discovered

May 1, 2017

Filed

vs. sector median

5 wks faster

Tracked as a single-filing incident — the only disclosure on record for this event so far.Confirmed14,000 affectedView incident

Name: Palo Alto Unified School District
norm: palo alto unified school district
Domain: pausd.org

Name: Palo Alto Unified School District
norm: palo alto unified school district
Domain: pausd.org
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: Apr 4, 2017
Breach occurred: Apr 4, 2017
Undetected for: 0 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Apr 17, 2017
Affected individuals: 14,000nationwide
Data types: Identity (basic)EducationMinor
Attack vector: Misconfiguration
Threat actor: External
Regulator citations: Reported to the California Attorney GeneralContacted the US Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center
Third party: via Schoolzilla

During the incident: Notified the California Attorney General
Contacted the US Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center for further guidance
Continuing to dialog with vendors regarding the implementation of safeguards to protect personal information
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 27 days(27 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: CA 60-day OK · 13d
Discovery-date grounding: letter-groundedThe discovery date is the detection date narrated in the notification letter — the defensible tier.
Clock breakdown: Statute Window Elapsed Threshold Status
California
Discovered: Apr 4, 2017
→ Notified: Apr 17, 2017
13d 60 days (analyst band, pre-2026 discoveries) CA 60-day OK

Statute	Window	Elapsed	Threshold	Status
California	Discovered: Apr 4, 2017 → Notified: Apr 17, 2017	13d	60 days (analyst band, pre-2026 discoveries)	CA 60-day OK

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://oag.ca.gov/ecrime/databreach/reports/sb24-67904
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: May 1, 2017
Raw hash: b204338354fede7ed8045ebc24a90fd0d2af5c1067b3ebe4f82c75d4208e7819

Reporting entityPalo Alto Unified School District

Victim entityPalo Alto Unified School District

Incidentdiscovered Apr 4, 2017

Stated responseNotified the California Attorney General

ComplianceCA 60-day OK

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenanceoag.ca.gov