International cyber attack disrupts swathe of universities and schools

"A cyber attack hit several universities and schools in the US, Canada and Australia, causing chaos, confusion and major disruptions amid the high stakes end-of-year season. The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused the academic software Canvas used by thousands of schools and universities to go offline this week. By late Thursday, the company Instructure, which owns Canvas, posted an update on its website saying that Canvas was "available for most users", but some universities were still reporting outages on Friday."

"The cyber attack affected universities and schools across the globe, with an estimated 9,000 institutions impacted. Mississippi State University announced that it was postponing Friday's final exams to allow affected students to recover any lost work. Aubrey Palmer, a meteorology student at the university, told the BBC students had just finished a 2,900-word exam essay when a ransom note suddenly appeared on their screens."

"The message read: "Shiny Hunters has breached Instructure (again)." It threatened to release stolen data unless Canvas or the affected universities paid a ransom in bitcoin. "My kneejerk reaction was that I'd been hacked myself, because that's what it looked like," Palmer said. "But then I actually read the ransom note and saw it was Canvas that had been hacked." Palmer said the professor and dozens of other students all had the note and everyone was looking around the room in confusion."

"At first, it was unclear whether their work had been saved. Frustration quickly spread among the students, and Palmer said people became "so angry at the idea of having to redo" their exams. The university has since been updating students by email, rescheduling exams, and advising them to ignore suspicious messages while responding to what it described as a "nationwide security incident"."

A cyberattack attributed to ShinyHunters disrupted academic software Canvas used by thousands of schools and universities in the US, Canada, and Australia. Canvas went offline, causing major confusion and interruptions during the end-of-year period. Instructure later reported Canvas was available for most users, but some institutions continued to experience outages. An estimated 9,000 institutions were affected globally. Mississippi State University postponed final exams to give students time to recover lost work. A student reported a ransom note appearing during an exam, threatening to release stolen data unless Canvas or universities paid in bitcoin. The university sent email updates, rescheduled exams, and advised students to ignore suspicious messages while responding to a nationwide security incident.

Read at www.bbc.com