A nationwide outage of the Canvas learning management system, caused by a cyber-attack, left thousands of US schools and universities scrambling on Thursday as students attempted to study for final exams. The disruption highlighted the education sector's heavy reliance on digital platforms.
Students took to social media in panic, unable to access course materials, lecture slides, and assignments housed on Canvas. Many institutions quickly notified students and parents, with some, like the University of Texas at San Antonio, postponing finals scheduled for Friday in response to the outage.
University IT departments reported the incident as a national-level cybersecurity breach. Teachers resorted to workarounds to help students prepare for exams and submit final assignments. Damon Linker, a senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, described the situation as leaving students and faculty 'dead in the water.'
The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility, according to Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. The group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, accessing billions of private messages and records. Connolly noted similarities to a previous breach at PowerSchool, which also offers learning management tools.
Instructure, the company behind Canvas, did not respond to requests for comment. The attack underscores the vulnerability of educational institutions, which hold vast amounts of sensitive data. Past incidents have targeted Minneapolis public schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
