Monmouth County School District's Online Portal Hacked

WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ — Shore Regional High School announced Tuesday morning that its student/parent online portal was hacked, and the private security information — including Social Security numbers and financial information — of thousands of people was breached.

"On or about April 13, 2023, Shore Regional experienced unauthorized access to our network," the district said in this statement on its website Tuesday morning.

In North Jersey, the Montclair school district fell victim on Tuesday morning to a similar data breach of its student/parent portal, Genesis, although it remains unknown if the two hacks are connected.

About 600 students are enrolled in Shore Regional High School, which pulls from Monmouth Beach, Oceanport, Sea Bright and West Long Branch, where the school is located.

"After an extensive forensic investigation and manual document review, we determined on March 28, 2024 that certain impacted files containing personal information may have been removed from our network by the unauthorized individual(s)," said the school district. "The information potentially impacted by this incident is full name, date of birth, Social Security number, employee ID, driver’s license or state identification, financial information, medical treatment or diagnosis, medical and/or health insurance information and/or non-directory information."

Shore Regional said that on Monday, the district started the process of sending notification letters to all potentially impacted individuals. The school district will also be offering complimentary identity monitoring and protection services for those whose Social Security numbers were hacked.

The district is also telling parents to place a fraud alert and/or security freeze on their credit cards, and be vigilant in monitoring their online bank accounts for fraudulent or irregular activity.

"Shore Regional has no evidence that any data has been misused. Nevertheless, Shore Regional encourages impacted individuals to take actions to help protect their personal information," said the school district.

For further questions about this incident, call their dedicated response line at 888-387- 8750, available Monday through Friday 9:00 am - 7:00 pm Eastern Time, excluding holidays.