Seesaw, a California-based education learning platform used by younger students across the nation and beyond, reported on Wednesday that it temporarily shut down its messaging feature after an incident involving an 鈥渋nappropriate image鈥� and an 鈥渙utside actor.鈥�
In the Twin Cities, South Washington County Schools was one of the school districts affected.
鈥淪eeSaw experienced an event of unauthorized access to its messaging system,鈥� wrote Bob Berkowitz, the director of the district鈥檚 technology department, . 鈥淭his unauthorized access generated messages with an inappropriate image sent from parent accounts to staff accounts. Parents could view this message in their sent mailbox. There is no evidence of student accounts receiving any inappropriate messages.鈥�
Sheletta Brundidge has three students in the school district. She was logging onto Seesaw on Wednesday morning to update her 5th grader鈥檚 reading log when she noticed a strange message within the education platform.
鈥淚t looked like a spam message,鈥� she said. 鈥淪omething wasn鈥檛 right.鈥�
She didn鈥檛 click on the link, but instead moved along with her busy day as a mom of three. Later, she saw the message from the school district about what had happened.
鈥淚t just shows how vulnerable these systems are,鈥� she said.
Seesaw is designed to assist schools and teachers with the education of students from preschoolers through 5th grade. It also provides a way for parents to track their students鈥� assignments, progress, and more. The company says it is used by more than 10 million teachers, students, and family members every month across more than 75 percent of schools in the U.S. and more than 150 countries worldwide.
In July, Seesaw posted introducing one app that connected teachers, students, and families.
In a statement posted online on Wednesday, Seesaw said 鈥渨e take this incident extremely seriously鈥� and was providing statements and updates on Twitter as well as its website.
So what happened?
鈥淚t was brought to our attention that a link to an inappropriate image was being shared via the Seesaw Messages feature,鈥� the company said in its statement. 鈥淚t appears that specific accounts were compromised by an outside actor.鈥�
While Seesaw said it was still 鈥渦p and running,鈥� the messaging feature was temporarily turned off for all users 鈥渨hile we investigate, to prevent further spread of this image from being sent or seen by any Seesaw user.鈥�
Seesaw did not disclose the nature of the message.
It just shows how vulnerable these systems are.
In an update posted early Wednesday afternoon, Seesaw reported that the problematic links are no longer accessible, passwords for affected individuals have been reset and the Messages feature has been enabled.
鈥淲e are continuing to monitor and investigate the situation,鈥� the company said.
One person on Twitter, identifying as a parent from Texas, said they were one of the compromised accounts.
鈥淵ou would think a platform with thousands of minors would have better security!鈥� he tweeted to Seesaw.
Parents with questions can reach out to their school districts, or to Seesaw directly at help@seesaw.me. Updates at .
