Canvas has been hacked, and is being held for ransom

Canvas, a cloud-based learning management system used by more than 8,000 colleges and universities, including all of the top ten colleges in the US, has been held for ransom. A group called Shinyhunters has claimed responsibility for the hack and credited Canvas’ parent company, notificationTo reach a settlement by May 12, otherwise “everything is leaked.”

Canvas outages have been reported across the country

There’s no word on how many schools have been affected, but there are reports of students not being able to access Canvas. Universities And colleges All above This the country. In the last half hour, complaints about canvas downs have gone from almost none to over 8,000. down detector.

Credit: Stephen Johnson

A Similar breach of notice occurred in late April or early May, and the company confirmed that names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages between users were exchanged by Shinyhunters, but said there was no evidence of compromised passwords, dates of birth, Social Security numbers or financial information.

Instruct updated its software on May 2, Says it has deployed patchesIncreased monitoring, and took other measures to contain the damage, a fact referenced by ShinyHunters in a message sent to Canvas users:

Credit: Stephen Johnson

The hacker group claimed that its previous hack had added up to more than 3 terabytes of data, affecting 275 million students, teachers and others at 9,000 educational institutions. Whether this latest breach will be that big remains to be seen.

What to do if you are affected by a Canvas outage

Perhaps while the threat is resolved, here are some steps students and teachers can take to make their digital data on Canvas more secure.

• Change your password: If you can log in, change your Canvas password. If you use the same password for banking, email and other places, change that too.

• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA).: This adds an extra layer of security.

• Beware of phishing emails: If email addresses are compromised, hackers can send highly targeted emails to students. Be suspicious of any messages asking you to install software or share account information.

• Monitor your credit: It’s unknown if financial information was part of the hack, but it wouldn’t hurt to check your credit report.