VIRGINIA BEACH -- An Ocean Lakes High School student had access to confidential student data at 22 Virginia Beach Public Schools, according to police and school officials.
Data included names, birthdays, identification numbers and Social Security numbers.
The student, who neither police nor school officials would identify, had access to the information May 6 in the library of Ocean Lakes High School.
While he had access to files at 22 schools, officials do not know which files he actually opened or why he was trying to access them.
He tried to print some of it, according to Virginia Beach Public Schools Chief Information Officer Ramesh Kapoor.
An "incorrect security setting" on temporary files left the student profles vulnerable, Kapoor said.
"This was not a hacking," Kapoor stressed.
As a result, police do not plan to charge the juvenile with a felony, though misdemeanor charges are possibe, police spokesman MPO Adam Bernstein said.
The school system mailed a letter today to parents at the 22 schools -- about a quarter of the city's schools -- advising of the breach and providing phone numbers to initiate a fraud alert on their children's credit report, if they feel the need.
The incorrect security setting in the computer servers was immediately fixed, Kapoor said.
The Va. Beach School System posted a list of the schools on its Website, along with the letter that was sent.
