On April 12, 2024, Goddard Systems, LLC (“Goddard”) filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of Massachusetts after discovering that an unauthorized party was able to access the company’s computer network. In this notice, Goddard explains that the incident resulted in an unauthorized party being able to access consumers’ sensitive information. Upon completing its investigation, Goddard began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the recent data security incident.

If you received a data breach notification from Goddard Systems, LLC, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. A data breach lawyer can help you learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft, as well as discuss your legal options following the Goddard School data breach. For more information, please see our recent piece on the topic here.

What Caused the Goddard Systems Data Breach?

The Goddard Systems data breach was only recently announced, and more information is expected in the near future. However, Goddard’s filing with the Attorney General of Massachusetts provides some important information on what led up to the breach. According to this source, on September 13, 2023, Goddard detected unusual activity within an employee’s email account. In response, Goddard secured its email environment and then launched an investigation with the help of third-party data security specialists.

Through this investigation, Goddard learned that there was abnormal activity within its network between September 8, 2023 and September 13, 2023, which was later confirmed to be related to an unauthorized party accessing the account.

After learning that sensitive consumer data was accessible to an unauthorized party, Goddard Systems reviewed the compromised files to determine what information was leaked and which consumers were impacted. Goddard completed this process on March 13, 2024.

On April 12, 2024, Goddard Systems sent out data breach letters to anyone who was affected by the recent data security incident. While the publicly available data breach letters do not specifically list the compromised data types, the personalized data breach letters sent to individual victims should provide a list of what information was compromised.

More Information About Goddard Systems, LLC

Goddard Systems, LLC is an education services company that operates a network of schools and daycare facilities across the county. Goddard operates on a franchise model, where all 600 schools are independently owned and operated. Goddard currently serves more than 75,000 students in 37 states and Washington, D.C. Goddard School employs more than 9,000 people and generates approximately $873 million in annual revenue.