A major cyberattack disrupted a learning management system used by thousands of schools and universities across the US on Thursday, leaving students and educators struggling to access coursework and exam materials as final examinations approached.
According to cybersecurity experts, the attack targeted Canvas, a widely used digital learning platform developed by Instructure. The outage affected educational institutions during one of the busiest academic periods of the year, raising concerns over the growing vulnerability of online education systems to cyber threats.
Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said a hacking group known as ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for breaching Instructure’s systems. The group reportedly announced online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide had been impacted by the incident.
Connolly added that the hackers claimed to have gained access to billions of private messages and other sensitive records linked to educational institutions using the platform.
Instructure did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the breach or clarify whether the platform was intentionally taken offline as a precautionary measure or whether the disruption was directly caused by the attackers.
Canvas is one of the most widely used learning management systems in the education sector, allowing schools and universities to manage grades, coursework, lecture videos, assignments, and communication between students and teachers.
Following the outage, universities and school districts across the US moved quickly to notify students and parents about the disruption, while many institutions began preparing alternative arrangements for exams and coursework submissions.
The incident highlights increasing cybersecurity risks facing the education sector, with schools and universities becoming frequent targets for ransomware groups and data theft operations due to the large volumes of personal and academic data stored on their systems.
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