A nationwide cyberattack affected thousands of U.S. schools and universities. The attack shut down a widely used Canvas platform, preventing students from taking finals and accessing coursework.
Canvas has more than 30 million active users globally, with more than 8,000 institutions. Many publicschool systems and top universities, including Texas Tech University, use the platform. South Plains College was not affected because the college uses Blackboard instead.
Canvas was shut down and was inaccessible, which negatively impacted many as finals were underway.
One of the first reports of the cyberattack was from a student in Washington who tried to log in to Canvas around noon on Thursday and saw a message from “ShinyHunters” claiming they had breached the platform.
The attackers issued a ransom note demanding that schools and universities either pay a ransom or risk having information leaked, claiming they had accessed data from millions of users, including students, teachers and staff.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed Friday that it was aware of the platform service disruption and advised students and faculty to wait for official guidance from their schools regarding the scope of the incident and the nature of any affected data.
The agency warned impacted individuals to be wary of potential scammers claiming to have their data. Professors had to find alternative methods to provide students with course materials and to allow students to still take finals or reschedule. However, later that night, Canvas was back up for most users.
Students and staff are advised to be cautious about calls, emails, or texts regarding personal information.