The following email was sent to parents of students at Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate regarding a security incident.
Aloha Pauahi Foundation ʻOhana,
We are writing to inform you about a data security incident that may have involved your personal information. In July, Blackbaud, a cloud software company and off-site data host, recently experienced a data breach. Blackbaud is used by many schools, colleges and nonprofits nationwide and here in Hawai‘i for philanthropy and alumni engagement, so you may be hearing from other organizations who are also impacted by this incident. The Pauahi Foundation takes the protection and proper use of your information very seriously which is why we are contacting you to explain the incident and provide you with steps you can take to protect yourself.
What Happened
According to Blackbaud, they discovered and stopped a ransomware attack in May. Blackbaudʻs cyber security team worked with law enforcement to successfully prevent the cyber criminal from blocking their system access and fully encrypting files. However, prior to the lockout, the cyber criminal removed a backup file containing personal information. Blackbaud paid the cyber criminal a ransom to ensure the backup file was permanently destroyed.
What Information Was Involved
We have determined the cyber criminal did not access your credit card information, bank account information, or social security number because this information is encrypted. The file removed may have contained your contact information, demographic information, and a history of your relationship with Pauahi Foundation.
Based on the nature of the incident, Blackbaudʻs research, and third party (including law enforcement) investigation, we have no reason to believe that any data went beyond the cyber criminal, was or will be misused, or will be disseminated or otherwise made available publicly.
What Blackbaud is Doing About This
Blackbaud was able to identify the vulnerability associated with this incident and quickly took action to fix it. They have confirmed through testing by multiple third parties, that their fix is able to withstand all known cyber attacks. Additionally, they are working to further strengthen their security protocols to protect your information and prevent incidents like this in the future.
What Pauahi Foundation is Doing About This
While it appears that no personal identification information was made public, we are notifying you so that you can take action to protect yourself and we have kuleana to keep you updated with any additional information. Ensuring the safety of our constituents’ data is of the utmost importance to us. As part of their ongoing efforts to help prevent something like this from happening in the future, our third-party service provider has already implemented several changes that will protect your data from any subsequent incidents.
First, the provider’s teams were able to quickly identify the vulnerability associated with this incident, including the tactics used by the cyber criminal, and took swift action to fix it. We have confirmed through testing by multiple third parties, including the appropriate platform vendors, that our fix withstands all known attack tactics. Additionally, they are accelerating our efforts to further harden their environment through enhancements to access management, network segmentation, deployment of additional endpoint and network-based platforms.
What You Can Do
Although, there is currently no evidence that your personal information has been misused, we recommend that you remain vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity or suspected identity theft to the proper law enforcement authorities.
We sincerely apologize for this incident and regret any inconvenience it may cause you. We appreciate your relationship with Pauahi Foundation and want to reiterate that the protection of your personal information is our priority. Should you have any further questions or are unsure of any communications related to the Pauahi Foundation, please contact our office at (808) 534-3966 or info@pauahi.org.
Mahalo,
T. Pono Ma’a
Executive Director, Pauahi Foundation