Al Jazeera reports: An educational platform used by thousands of schools and universities has been partially restored following an international cyberattack that caused major chaos as students prepare for end-of-year exams.ShinyHunters, a hacking group, claimed responsibility for crashing the web-based educational platform Canvas, created by tech firm Instructure.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4‘My phone is a brick’: Russians scramble for information as data blockedlist 2 of 4US intelligence agencies not expecting China to invade Taiwan in 2027list 3 of 4A dangerous tipping point? Anthropic’s AI hacking claims divide expertslist 4 of 4Cyberattack hits check-in systems at some of Europe’s busiest airportsend of listThe group said it had stolen 3.5 terabytes of data, including names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages, and threatened to release this if ransoms were not paid by May 12.Instructure’s website said on Saturday that Canvas is now “available for most users” and no incidents were reported on Saturday.
It is not clear if a ransom was paid.The University of Sydney reported on Saturday that Canvas had been restored but was not yet “accessible to staff or students, as we need to complete checks”.Canada’s University of Alberta said Canvas was partially restored with “reduced functionality”.The countries that have been affected include the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.According to Canvas, about 30 million people across the globe use its system. The breach reportedly targeted close to 9,000 institutions across the globe.Breach came at ‘worst time’The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was “aware of a service disruption” impacting a learning system, although it did not name Canvas, in a statement Friday.“This disruption has impacted schools, educational institutions, and students across the country,” it said.
Background
Advertisement Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Florida, Phil Lavelle, said the hack could not have “come at a worse time” as many US schools are in the middle of exam season.
Originally reported by Al Jazeera. This story has been edited and re-presented by BRIC Team.
