Canvas outage wreaks havoc for students during college finals
AP News • • nation
Key Points:
- A cyberattack by the hacking group ShinyHunters caused a nationwide outage of Canvas, an online education platform used by schools and universities to manage exams, course materials, and grades, disrupting finals for many students.
- Instructure, Canvas' parent company, restored access for most users by late Thursday, but some schools continue to restrict access as they assess security risks.
- ShinyHunters, a group linked to previous major cyberattacks, threatened to leak data from nearly 9,000 schools unless a ransom was paid, though they have since extended the deadline and ceased public commentary on the incident.
- The breach exposed student and faculty data such as ID numbers, emails, names, and messages, but Instructure found no evidence of compromised passwords or sensitive financial information; however, experts warn of potential phishing attacks in the aftermath.
- Schools have postponed exams to accommodate students affected by the outage, and cybersecurity officials advise users to practice strong password hygiene, enable multifactor authentication, and remain vigilant against suspicious communications.
