The Fort Dodge Community School District released a statement Tuesday Morning regarding a data breach incident earlier this year . That statement from FDCSD is below.

Beginning today, Timberline Billing Service, LLC
(“Timberline”) is mailing letters to certain current and former students of Fort Dodge Community School
District (the “District”). Timberline provides Medicaid billing and reimbursement services to over 190
school districts in Iowa, including the District.
On September 2, 2020, Timberline informed the District that an unknown actor accessed its network
between February 12, 2020 and March 4, 2020, encrypted certain files, and removed certain
information from its network. Timberline immediately began an investigation to determine what
information was involved. This incident did not involve any access to District’s internal systems or
student records.
Because Timberline’s investigation was unable to determine what information was actually removed,
Timberline reviewed all files that could have been accessed by the unknown actor. Timberline’s review
determined that the files contained information for some current and former students of the District,
including names, dates of birth, Medicaid identification number and related billing information.
Importantly, the files did not contain student Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or financial
account information.
Timberline is not aware of any misuse of the data as a result of this incident. However, in an abundance
of caution, Timberline is offering affected students complimentary credit monitoring and identity
protection services. We also recommend that individuals review the statements they receive from their
health care providers. If they see services they did not receive, they should contact the provider
immediately. Timberline has established a dedicated call center to answer any questions parents or
students may have about this incident. This toll free dedicated assistance line can be reached at 1-844-
439-7669, Monday through Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. Central Time, and Saturday-
Sunday between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Central Time.
To help prevent something like this from happening again, Timberline is taking steps to enhance the
security of its systems including upgrading all servers and firewalls, resetting all user passwords,
requiring frequent password rotations, and migrating school and student data to a cloud location.