A cyber attack targeted multiple universities and schools in the United States, Canada, and Australia, generating chaos, uncertainty, and significant interruptions during the high-stakes end-of-year season. The hacking organization ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused the academic software Canvas, used by thousands of institutions and universities, to go down this week.
Canvas’s parent firm, Instructure, provided an update on its website late Thursday stating that Canvas was “available for most users,” although other universities were still experiencing disruptions on Friday.
The cyberattacks targeted universities and schools around the world, hitting an estimated 9,000 institutions. Mississippi State University has declared that it will postpone Friday’s final exams to allow affected students to recoup any missed work.
Aubrey Palmer, a meteorology student at the institution, told the BBC that pupils had just completed a 2,900-word exam essay when a ransom note flashed on their screen. It threatened to reveal the stolen data unless Canvas and the impacted colleges paid a bitcoin ransom. Palmer initially assumed he had been hacked himself based on appearances. “But then I actually read the ransom note and saw it was Canvas that had been hacked.
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