business
Cyberattack Disrupts Canvas Platform Used by Schools Across U.S.
A cyberattack forced the shutdown of the Canvas online education platform on Thursday, affecting K-12 schools and universities nationwide. The platform, which supports course materials, assignments, grading and communication, began coming back online late Thursday but left many institutions adjusting final exam schedules into Friday.
May 8, 5:03 PM·2m read1 source
Nbc NewsAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
Schools and universities across the United States continued to adjust operations on Friday following a cyberattack that disrupted the Canvas online education platform. The incident began Thursday afternoon when operators shut down the system after detecting a hacker’s intrusion.
Canvas provides digital course infrastructure for instructors and students, allowing teachers to upload materials, communicate with students and grade assignments while students access resources, complete exercises and submit work. “It’s quite literally everything,” Rutgers University sophomore Travis Park, a civil engineering major, told NBC News on Friday.
” The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed in a May 3 statement that it had obtained about 6.65 terabytes of Canvas data from 9,000 schools worldwide. On Thursday, users logging into the platform reported seeing a note from the hackers warning that all data would be leaked if demands were not met by the end of Tuesday.
Late Thursday night, Canvas, which has more than 30 million active users globally from kindergartens to Ivy League universities, began coming back online, according to its Utah-based parent company Instructure. Many students and faculty continued to experience effects on Friday.
Universities reported varied disruptions.
Penn State restored its Canvas system Friday afternoon after cancelling exams scheduled for the Pollock Testing Center on Thursday night and Friday. The University of Illinois postponed final exams and assignments due Friday, Saturday and Sunday. UNLV resumed operations Friday morning but permitted students to submit work due Thursday, Friday or Saturday late.
