PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Thousands of students across the country were unable to access Canvas on Thursday, a cloud-based learning management system used by about 8,000 universities and school systems nationwide.
Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, said the platform was placed in “maintenance mode” as it investigates the issue.
“It was pretty jarring. Just being like ‘Oh, wow’ such a big resource that so much of the school system uses has had a security breach,” said Portland State University student Addison Barbara.
Some schools reported seeing a ransom note displayed on the homepage of their Canvas sites. The hacking group ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility and is reportedly demanding ransoms to prevent further data leaks.
Earlier this month, Instructure disclosed a cybersecurity incident on May 1, saying the breach included names, student ID numbers, messages between users, and email addresses.
“For me, I can’t access any of my classes. Therefore, I can’t access any of my homework that I need to do that I have due today,” said PSU student Elleora Devilliers-Dann.
Portland State University also issued a statement, saying, “Canvas is currently unavailable at PSU as part of a nationwide outage. The vendor, Instructure, is investigating the issue and working to bring the system back online.”
Students told FOX 12 some instructors have been working around the outage by using email, but concerns are growing as finals approach.
“I think the longer it goes on, the more concerned I’ll get. If it’s just up until, I don’t know, maybe eight o’clock tonight—I think I’ll be alright,” Barbara said.
The outage is also impacting K-12 schools, including in Beaverton. The district sent a message to families saying Instructure has taken steps to secure its systems and believes the incident has been contained, and that students and families do not need to take any action at this time.
Instructure said no sensitive information—such as dates of birth, passwords, or financial information—was leaked. The company said if that changes, it will alert schools.
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