PHOENIX — Governor Katie Hobbs is pressing Arizona Department of Education Superintendent Tom Horne for the ADE's response after a data issue raised security concerns about the state Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
Hobbs' office sent a letter to Horne Friday requesting detailed plans for protecting the personal data of Arizona students and families.
You can read the full letter below:
The state's Incident Response Team at the Department of Homeland Security was recently activated for a data breach involving ClassWallet, the company that administers the finances of the ESA program. Hobbs' office adds that two ESA officials resigned after the breach, raising concerns about the program's administration and the security of student data.
The Department of Education released this statement from ClassWallet CEO Jamie Rosenburg:
"The problem has been solved. It was a permission setting error. Once discovered, we (ClassWallet) took immediate action and corrected the permission setting. Additionally, we performed a database search and concluded no other users were affected. Therefore, this is an isolated incident to a single user."
ClassWallet has also released the following statement:
“We object to any implication that ClassWallet was at fault in this incident. ClassWallet has fully supported the Arizona Department of Homeland Security in its investigation into the matter, and we look forward to its swift resolution and published results.”
Later Friday afternoon, Horne sent a follow-up letter to the governor's office, saying in part that parents were not notified of the finding because it was a unique and isolated incident. You can view Horne's letter below.
