Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. The last update was made at 12:01 p.m. Friday, May. 8.
DeKALB – Universities along with schools K-12 across the world were impacted by a data breach from the result of a cyberattack on Thursday targeting Instructure, the parent company of Canvas.
After originally being compromised, Canvas access was restored around 9:30 p.m., four hours after the cyberattack originally took place.
Highly sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers, passwords and financial information were not compromised. Other data such as names, email addresses and student ID numbers have been exposed.
Canvas, similar to Blackboard, is a web-based education management system used by educators and students to access grades and course material. Around 9,000 schools worldwide were affected by this cyberattack.
The hacker group, ShinyHunters, claimed to be responsible for the cyberattack, which reportedly occurred upon students opening canvas. The group threatened the release of student data and has said that Instructure has until the end of the day on Tuesday to negotiate a settlement.
The statement from the group also let schools affected know that they are able to negotiate with the cyber advisory group to prevent the release of student data.
Instructure has released a status update online.
“Instructure has placed Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test in maintenance mode. We anticipate being up soon, and will provide updates as soon as possible,” the update said.
Although NIU doesn’t use Canvas, it is currently unclear if the university has been impacted in any way.
Other Illinois institutions such as Illinois State University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been impacted. UIUC has announced to its students that all final exams on Friday, Saturday and Sunday would be postponed.
NIU was not impacted by the breach.
