NYC’s Department of Education CTO Anuraag Sharma resigns following data hacks  

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Following a series of data breaches, New York City’s Department of Education Chief Technology Officer Anuraag Sharma resigned from his position, according to a New York Post article. Sharma resigned from being CTO, a title he has held for almost four years, around a month after the hacks were reported.

Along with school staff and service providers, around 45,000 students were impacted by the hacks, according to the NYP article.  A letter from the Department of Education stated that 19,000 documents were obtained through MOVEIt, a file transfer system.  In addition to this,  9,000 social security numbers were stolen.

The article went on to mention that along with social security numbers, dates of birth, employee IDs, and OSIS numbers, a code given to every NYC public school student, were stolen.  This breach was preceded by a hack that compromised the data of 820,000 current and past city students.

In a statement following the breach, DOE spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said, “Working with NYC Cyber Command, we immediately took steps to remediate, an internal investigation revealed that certain DOE files were affected.  Currently, we have no reason to believe there is any ongoing unauthorized access to DOE systems.”

Styer stressed that, “The safety and security of our students and staff, including their personal information and data, is of the utmost importance for the New York City Department of Education.”

Sharma, who was named CTO on August 19, 2019, has been employed with the city for over 20 years, according to the Post article.  The article reported that he was paid $207,000 for his position.

The article reported that in addition to Sharma, Communications Chief Michael Vaughn and Chief Strategy Officer Savita Bharadwa recently “parted ways” with the DOE.  An insider who spoke to the Post reported that Sharma was “well regarded” and that his resignation had nothing to do with the recent tech breaches.

According to his profile on nyc.gov, Sharma is an alum of Pune University and Southern New Hampshire University.  Prior to being the DOE’s CTO, he was Chief Information Officer for the city’s Department of Design and Construction.  He also worked for the city’s Health Department for 10 years.