Chaos erupts as cyberattack disrupts learning platform Canvas amid finals

期末考试期间，网络攻击导致学习平台 Canvas 陷入混乱

Chaos erupted at schools and colleges throughout the US on Thursday as a cyberattack disrupted online learning platform Canvas just as students were due to take final exams. Canvas parent company Instructure said that as of Friday morning, the platform was back online. 周四，美国各地的中小学和大学陷入混乱，在线学习平台 Canvas 遭到网络攻击，而此时正值学生参加期末考试之际。Canvas 的母公司 Instructure 表示，截至周五上午，该平台已恢复在线。

Instructure said it temporarily took Canvas offline on Thursday after identifying unauthorized activity in its network. The threat actor was the same one responsible for a data breach that Instructure disclosed a week ago. Data accessed included user names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages exchanged on the platform. The company said it has no indication that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information were involved. Instructure 表示，在发现网络中存在未经授权的活动后，他们于周四暂时关闭了 Canvas。此次攻击的幕后黑手与 Instructure 一周前披露的数据泄露事件为同一方。被访问的数据包括用户名、电子邮件地址、学生证号码以及在平台上交换的信息。该公司表示，目前没有迹象表明密码、出生日期、政府身份证明或财务信息受到影响。

Schools and colleges scramble

学校和高校陷入困境

A ransomware group known as ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach on its dark web site. It claimed the data it took came from 275 million people associated with 8,800 schools. As students were trying to prepare for and take final exams Thursday, Canvas login pages displayed a ransom demand. It said Instructure had rebuffed the group’s earlier demands and encouraged individual schools to negotiate directly with them. 一个名为 ShinyHunters 的勒索软件组织在其暗网网站上声称对此次入侵负责。该组织声称其窃取的数据涉及与 8,800 所学校相关的 2.75 亿人。周四，当学生们试图准备和参加期末考试时，Canvas 的登录页面显示了勒索信息。信息称 Instructure 拒绝了该组织此前的要求，并鼓励各学校直接与他们进行谈判。

The note and the outage sent schools and colleges scrambling. The University of Illinois reportedly postponed all final exams and assignments scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth rescheduled or extended due dates for exams. The University of California system directed all its campuses to linkword. 这条勒索信息和系统中断导致各学校和高校手忙脚乱。据报道，伊利诺伊大学推迟了原定于周五、周六和周日进行的所有期末考试和作业。马萨诸塞大学达特茅斯分校重新安排或延长了考试截止日期。加州大学系统则指示其所有校区采取应对措施。

Canvas isn’t the only learning platform to be struck by a cyberattack. Last year, PowerSchool, a firm that provides cloud-based software to 60 million students from 16,000 K–12 schools worldwide, disclosed a breach that exposed years’ worth of sensitive data, including names, addresses, and disciplinary records. Canvas 并非唯一遭受网络攻击的学习平台。去年，为全球 16,000 所 K-12 学校的 6000 万学生提供云端软件的公司 PowerSchool 披露了一起数据泄露事件，导致多年积累的敏感数据（包括姓名、地址和纪律处分记录）被曝光。

ShinyHunters has operated for years as a loose collective. In 2024, it made off with a trove of credentials and other data from cloud storage provider Snowflake and used it in follow-on breaches of Snowflake customers, including TicketMaster. ShinyHunters 多年来一直以松散组织的形式运作。2024 年，该组织从云存储提供商 Snowflake 窃取了大量凭据和其他数据，并利用这些数据对 Snowflake 的客户（包括 TicketMaster）进行了后续攻击。