Cyber-attack on system widely used in US education disrupts final exams

"A system that thousands of schools and universities in the US use was offline on Thursday during a cyber-attack, creating chaos as students tried to study for finals and underscoring education's dependence on technology. Students quickly took to social media to ask if others were unable to access Canvas, with many panicking that they could no longer view course materials housed within the platform to study for their final exams."

"Universities and school districts quickly began notifying students and parents. Some schools, such as the University of Texas at San Antonio, announced they were pushing back finals scheduled for Friday in response to the outage. This is being reported as a national-level cyber-security incident, wrote the director of information technology at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health when announcing that the school's online system was down."

"Virginia Tech acknowledged in a notice to students that the administration was aware of the effect on final exams and other end-of-semester activities. The University of New Mexico sent a similar message to the campus community, and the University of Florida urged students to stay alert for any phishing messages that appear to be from Canvas. Teachers say they are having to find workarounds to help students study for exams and submit final assignments."

"Damon Linker, a senior lecturer in the political science department at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a post on the social media platform X that his students had been relying on Canvas to access every reading from the semester and all of his lecture slides before their Monday final exams. The outage leaves students and faculty dead in the water here in academia right now, he said."

A cyber-attack caused Canvas, a widely used learning platform, to go offline across thousands of US schools and universities. Students reported being unable to access course materials, lecture slides, and readings needed for final exams, leading to confusion and panic. Universities and school districts notified students and parents, and some postponed or adjusted end-of-semester activities. Teachers sought alternative methods to help students study and submit final assignments. Several institutions warned about phishing attempts that could appear to come from Canvas. The incident was treated as a national-level cybersecurity event, with IT leadership indicating the system was down and hoping for a rapid resolution.

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