Hayfield Community Schools
09/15/22
Dear Staff and Families/Caregivers:
We are writing to inform you about a nationwide incident related to Seesaw, a learning platform used in our PreK-5 classrooms, the actions taken, and how seriously Hayfield Community Schools and the entire Seesaw team take this incident.
What happened
We have learned that a link to an inappropriate message was being shared via the Messages feature within Seesaw. The Seesaw platform itself was not compromised, however, specific individual user accounts were used to send this inappropriate message.
The incident was led by an outside actor (meaning that the inappropriate message was not created by the sender of the message or by the school). It occurred as a result of a coordinated external attempt to guess user account passwords associated with this group of user accounts.
What actions were taken
The Seesaw team has taken several immediate actions to contain and address this issue. Messages was turned OFF for all users while the issue was investigated. It will be enabled again only after taking the necessary actions to ensure the security of accounts. To learn more about the details of what action was taken, you can visit status.seesaw.me
At this time, we have no evidence that any Hayfield Community Schools Seesaw accounts were compromised. Hayfield Community Schools staff have enhanced monitoring our Seesaw activities throughout the day on 9/15 and will continue to monitor for any inappropriate content.
Important information for you
If your account was compromised, your password was reset and you have already received an email notifying you of this.
It is essential that you always use best practices to ensure your password is secure.
Seesaw takes protecting your security and privacy seriously and there are a number of measures in place to protect the integrity of your information. You can learn more here.
We recommend that you refresh your web browser and if using Seesaw on a mobile device, you can update your device to the latest app version (version 8.1.2, released today) and re-launch Seesaw or close and re-open the Seesaw app (Here are instructions to close iOS and Android devices).
The safety and privacy of our teachers, students, and families is our number one priority and we are all taking this incident extremely seriously. If you have any questions or concerns for the Seesaw team, please reach out here.
Sincerely,
Gregg Slaathaug, Superintendent
Hayfield Community Schools
gslaathaug@hayfield.k12.mn.us
Note: Learn more about Seesaw here.
507-671-1557