Kiera Riley
Arizona Capitol Times
A recent data breach involving the contractor in charge of Arizona’s expanded Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program is now under investigation by the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.
In a letter to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne today, Gov. Katie Hobbs flagged the breach in ClassWallet’s systems and demanded a report detailing the department’s response by Aug. 3.
Hobbs also speculated the breach could be tied to the recent resignations of ESA program director Christine Accurso and director of operations Linda Rizzo, though Accurso denied any connection.
In the letter, Hobbs asked what steps the department is taking to address potential breach of state data privacy law and federal protections under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. She also asked whether Horne had referred the breach to the Attorney General under consumer fraud statutes.
Horne said the breach was a “unique and isolated incident that affected no other users and was corrected right away,” and confirmed the office had not referred the matter to the attorney general as they had already talked to the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.
He also added the resignations of Accurso and Rizzo, “has absolutely nothing to do with any reported data breach.”
On July 13, Arizona Capitol Times’ affiliate publication the Yellow Sheet Report reported a claim from an ESA parent that she was able to access thousands of purchases from ESA parents in the program through her ClassWallet account. One of her five children’s ESA accounts showed a “View All Approvals” tab, which included pages of orders, with student names, home addresses and disability categories, among information about the type of order and receipts and invoices.
