- The company that runs a learning management system used by universities around the world has been hacked.
- SA institutions have also been hit, with Wits confirming that student names and email addresses, student numbers, and conversations on the platform were breached.
- Students have been warned against responding to suspect messages, especially those that request login credentials or personal information.
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Students at some South African higher education institutions, including the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), have been affected by a major global data breach at the company that manages a popular learning management system.
Instructure, an American educational technology company that runs the Canvas online learning portal, disclosed that it had suffered a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor at the start of the month. It notified affected parties on Thursday.
Canvas is an online portal used by students at thousands of institutions to take tests and receive grades, access course materials and turn in assignments. It is reportedly used by almost 9 000 learning institutions worldwide.
A prolific cybercrime group, ShinyHunters, said it was responsible for the hack in a dark web post seen by Bloomberg News, but Instructure hasn’t confirmed that the group was behind the attack. ShinyHunters is known for stealing victims’ data and then demanding extortion fees.
MyBroadband reported that South African institutions, including Wits University, Stadio, Milpark Education, Invictus Education Group, and Spark Schools, were listed as victims of the ShinyHunters attack.
Spark Schools issued a statement to News24 indicating that it was aware of the media report, but claimed that its systems had not been compromised in any way.
It said that it engaged with Instructure to assess whether there had been any impact on its users. It said Instructure confirmed that Spark was not affected.
Spark Schools said that it is monitoring the situation and would provide updates if there is any new information.
Similarly, Stadio issued a statement indicating that at this stage it had identified no evidence that its systems or data, including student personal information, had been compromised.
“Stadio students access Canvas via secure Microsoft 365 authentication, which adds an additional layer of protection within our broader digital environment,” it said. It said it had activated internal response protocols and would update affected individuals if any risk was identified.
Wits systems back up
Shirona Patel, the head of communications at Wits, confirmed to News24 that the university was affected by the breach.
“The university can confirm that a cybersecurity incident has occurred involving Instructure, the company that manages Canvas, the university’s student learning management system,” Patel said.
The Canvas platform was offline for several hours on Thursday, according to a New York Times report. Patel confirmed that Wits had some downtime on its system overnight. Just before 10:00 on Friday, Wits was running tests on the system. At 11:15, Patel confirmed that the learning management system was back up and running.
Patel said that Wits was informed by Instructure about the breach on 7 May and indicated that it appears that a cyber extortion group perpetrated the attack.
“Information that may have been compromised includes student names and email addresses, student numbers, and conversations contained within Canvas inboxes,” Patel said. She said that an investigation at Instructure was ongoing and that the full extent of the breach is not known at this stage.
She urges all students and Canvas users to be alert to unsolicited emails or messages that appear to come from Canvas or Wits, especially those that request login credentials or personal information.
“We urge students and users not [to] click on suspicious links or attempt to download any files associated with this incident,” Patel said.
The warning issued by Patel is in line with those issued by prestigious universities in the United States.
Stanford said certain identifying information, including names, email addresses, student identification numbers and messages between users, might have been compromised in the hack.
Rutgers University said in a statement that it was unclear what school data may have been compromised. Baylor University warned students of phishing messages from attackers impersonating the school’s IT staff.
Stellenbosch University spokesperson Martin Viljoen said that the university uses a different learning management system. It was not affected by the hack. The University of Cape Town media desk told News24 that it was not affected either.
Reporting with Bloomberg. This article was updated after initial publication to confirm that the learning management system at Wits was operational again. Comment was also added from Spark Schools, Stadio, Stellenbosch University, and the University of Cape Town after initial publication.
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