ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A cyberattack is disrupting the online learning platform Canvas, affecting thousands of schools in Florida and around the world as students prepare for finals.
The tech company targeted is called Instructure and they operate the online learning platform called Canvas. Canvas is used by major universities like Harvard and Princeton, along with K-12 districts. Some users who tried logging in this week were redirected to a page carrying an ominous message from a hacking group calling itself “ShinyHunters.”
UCF student Samuel Gross is among the millions potentially impacted. He worries the outage could ripple into high-stakes issues like financial aid since some programs require proof of class activity early in a term to release funds.
Gross learned something was wrong after receiving an e-mail from his provost. While his own exams and assignments for the spring semester were already completed, he says the disruption would be far more serious for students graduating or taking final exams this week.
“I think it’s really important that they get this up and running because Canvas is one of those things that we use for everything,” said Gross. “It is the ultimate tool for colleges and universities from things like simple quizzes to syllabuses being posted and as summer begins to kick-off in the next couple of weeks here, I really couldn’t imagine college without it.”
Orange County Public Schools, which also uses Canvas, released a statement saying the data accessed may include names, email addresses, student identification numbers and some private messages sent within the platform. The district says there is no evidence that passwords, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or financial information were involved.
Hackers have reportedly warned they will leak information unless the company pays, setting a deadline of May 12. In all, an estimated 9,000 schools worldwide could be impacted.
Seminole State College also confirmed it uses Canvas and says it is monitoring the situation and working with Instructure on next steps.
Leaders are now urging users to be on the lookout for phishing E-mails and report anything suspicious to your school immediately. If hackers did access personal information and class schedules, experts warn scams could become more targeted and more convincing.