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Mississippi education officials were unable to say Friday how many students’ personal information might have been obtained in the wake of a data breach at Questar one of the state’s testing vendors.
The Mississippi Department of Education said in a statement Friday that an unauthorized user accessed the information of two districts and three schools in the state. The release did not name the districts affected. The department said it does not share Social Security numbers or addresses with the vendor.
New York was also affected by the data breach. The Associated Press reported that names, identification numbers, grade levels teachers’ names of 52 students in five of that’s state schools were among the inappropriately accessed data.
Questar provides state subject assessments in English language arts, mathematics, Algebra I and English II for the state.
More: MDE: Testing company misgraded nearly 1,000 exams
In 2015, the state Board of Education awarded the Minnesota-based company a nearly $111 million contract to stretch over 10 years.
Questar was awarded an additional $2.2 million contract in June after another vendor, the Pearson company, incorrectly scored nearly 1,000 history assessments.
MDE said the vendor has not provided additional details.
State Superintendent of Educaiton Carey Wright has notified the state attorney general’s office of the breach.
“We take seriously the protection of student information, and any violation of privacy is absolutely unacceptable. We are actively pursuing immediate corrective action from Questar,” she said.