As of Friday, May 8, at 10 a.m. Canvas has resumed regular services.
Cyberattackers breached Canvas today, putting San Francisco State University students’ data, including private messages and passwords, in jeopardy.
Canvas is currently inaccessible to students and faculty following the attack. The service displays a text saying that its status is down due to scheduled maintenance.
A group of criminal hackers under the name “ShinyHunters,” accessed over 9,000 universities’ cloud services which provide communication between students and professors and hold private data. The group is demanding settlement payments from affected schools in exchange for not leaking the illegally obtained data.
The attack is affecting 275 million students who use Instructure’s service. The hackers have given affected universities until May 12 to pay.
According to an email obtained by Golden Gate Xpress, the Chancellor’s Office has convened for an emergency meeting with their Academic Affairs partners to address the ransom attack.
Golden Gate Xpress attempted to reach out to Information Technology Services. ITS Service Desk’s help center is currently unavailable for further assistance.
“If you’re calling regarding Canvas, please be advised that we are currently experiencing a service redirection. IT is aware of the issue and are actively trying to restore the service,” ITS Service Desk said in a voicemail.
Previous data security attacks by “ShinyHunters” include those on popular math app Mathway in 2020 and AT&T customers in 2024.
The San Francisco Bay Region Network sent an email to California State University students and faculty on Friday afternoon. A link informing students how to access Canvas after the shutdown was attached
“Instructure has restored Canvas services and our technology team has enabled campus access to Canvas,” SFBRN said. “The Chancellor’s Office and the CSU campuses have been actively working closely with state partners and security teams to ensure all recommended security protocols and validations were fully completed before restoring access to Canvas.”
