Harvard and Yale Breached... U.S. Universities Hit by Hacker Attack

Hacking of "Canvas" Learning Platform

Exam Schedules Postponed During Final Exam Period

The online learning platform "Canvas," widely used by universities in the United States, has been hit by a hacking attack, causing significant disruptions to academic schedules, including postponed exams.

According to reports from Bloomberg and the Associated Press on May 8 (local time), Instructure, the U.S. educational technology company that operates Canvas, announced that its services were temporarily halted due to a cyberattack by hackers the previous day, though most services have now been restored. Canvas is used for overall academic management, including accessing lecture materials, submitting assignments, taking exams, and checking grades, and is utilized by thousands of schools worldwide, including those in the United States.

According to the company, hackers exploited vulnerabilities in certain teacher accounts to access parts of the system and steal information such as user names, email addresses, student identification numbers (IDs), and messages exchanged among users. However, the company stated that there is no evidence yet that passwords, dates of birth, or financial information have been compromised.

The U.S.- and UK-based hacker group "ShinyHunters" claimed responsibility for the attack through a post on the dark web. However, Instructure has not officially confirmed this. ShinyHunters is known for stealing victim data and then demanding money, and in this case, they are threatening to leak data from approximately 9,000 schools and 275 million people unless a ransom is paid.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said, "We are aware of this outage," adding that "it has affected schools, educational institutions, and students across the United States." The FBI urged victims to report incidents and advised against complying with hackers' ransom demands.

In reality, portal outages have occurred at several universities around the world, including Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, and Columbia University in the U.S., as well as the University of Oslo in Norway and the University of Adelaide in Australia. Universities are adjusting final exam schedules in consideration of the aftermath of the hacker attack. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus and the University of Illinois postponed all exams scheduled over the next three days starting on this day.

Danny Jenkins, CEO of the cybersecurity firm ThreatLocker, said, "The attack occurred at a time when students are preparing for final exams and graduation, causing significant anxiety among students." He added, "This was an intentional move by the attackers to pressure both the schools and Instructure."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.