UBC and SFU Among Thousands of Universities Affected by Canvas Software Breach

The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University are among thousands of learning institutions around the world reporting a cyber breach of the Canvas learning software that could affect students' personal information. A UBC network status page said on Thursday afternoon that any students still logged in to the software, which is used to access course information, submit assignments and participate in discussions, should log out until notified it is safe to access the software again.

The page said the university first became aware of a cyber-related incident involving Instructure, Canvas's U.S.-based parent company, late Tuesday afternoon. An SFU spokesperson said around 9,000 learning institutions worldwide have been affected by the systems breach.

Information that may have been involved includes names, email addresses, student ID numbers and messages among Canvas users, the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The UBC page advises students who logged into Canvas on Thursday afternoon to change their password. The page recommends that faculty, staff and students continue to be vigilant against phishing and follow best practices for protecting their accounts and data, including using strong passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication where available.

An associate professor of computer science at UBC said instructors at the school may consider their teaching materials as proprietary intellectual property that could now be in the hands of hackers. Students are uploading their own project materials, their homework and their solutions, the professor told CBC News.

The professor said anyone affected by the cyber breach should be wary of emails and communications in the days to come, given that attackers could be using leaked information for phishing purposes. CBC News has reached out to Instructure for comment, as well as the student unions at UBC and SFU.

UBC and SFU are British Columbia's two biggest universities by student enrolment.