Amid the sun and palm trees of Florida, many local teachers and employees now have one more issue to worry about, other than just sunburn. It was reported earlier this week that a high school senior at Atlantic Technical High School was tracked down as the source of a large data breach. In all, over 35,000 individuals within the Broward School District of Coconut Creek Florida, were put at risk by the hack.

Authorities were able to track the student down in a timely fashion. According to their written reports, the student did “a poor job of covering up his actions, although that did not stop him from committing the crime.” That data encryption system for the school district was recently upgraded, although reports haven’t detailed whether or not this upgrade was in response to this data breach. Students at Atlantic Technical are required to fill out a computer access form that binds them to abiding by a series of rules and regulations, one of which is respecting the integrity of personal data and files on the school’s servers.

While details are still developing in the case, the school board is attempting to alert affected faculty and staff. Unfortunately, despite the “sloppy hack” and the quick response by authorities, no list has been created to name the individuals at risk of identity theft. The information that was taken contained personal addresses, social security numbers, bank routing numbers for the district’s direct deposit system, and funds contributed to state-run retirement funds. Teachers and staff throughout the district have expressed a great concern at this threat to their privacy and security.

Until the school district is able to alert all 35,000 individuals, people are advised to take matters in to their own hands. Unlike other recent data breaches, the Broward School District has not guaranteed to provide identity theft monitoring for its employees. Experts suggest that the public school system is not able to support subscriptions for such a large number of people. However, some teachers have taken steps to protect themselves. One of the easiest options available to both faculty and staff is a subscription through an ID theft service, such as Lifelock. These companies monitor the credit reports of subscribers and check with all three credit bureaus to make sure that no unauthorized activity is made on credit cards, bank accounts, or loan applications.

As for the student caught with the stolen information on his laptop at home, charges have been filed. For the mean time, the student has been suspended for two weeks while the investigation continues. Efforts at the district level have been made to bring the student up for the possibility of expulsion. Although the offender was only 17 at the time of the data breach, the severity of the hack may expose him to being charged as an adult, as criminal charges will no doubt soon follow his trial with the local school board.