A360
Key Takeaways✦ Atlas AI
01
Harvard Canvas site went offline.
02
ShinyHunters claimed Instructure breach.
03
Data leak threatened by May 12.
Atlas AI
Harvard University students lost access to the Canvas learning management system on Thursday asourcesernoon asourceser the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters claimed it had breached Instructure, Canvas’ parent company, and listed Harvard among thousands of affected schools.
Canvas, which Harvard uses to host course materials and facilitate communication between students and instructors, became inaccessible at about 3:30 p.m. EDT. Users were redirected to a message from ShinyHunters alleging it had breached Instructure and accusing the company of ignoring prior warnings.
By about 4:20 p.m., the site displayed a notice saying Canvas was undergoing scheduled maintenance.
ShinyHunters first announced the alleged breach on Sunday, claiming it stole data including private messages from “275 million affiliates” across 9,000 schools. The group set deadlines for schools to negotiate a settlement and threatened to leak data if demands were not met.
Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT) said it was aware that Canvas was unavailable due to a cyber incident and that it was actively investigating, according to spokesperson Tim Bailey.
