The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has postponed all final exams and assignments after an online learning system was taken offline following a cyberattack.
The downstate university was one of thousands of universities that experienced problems after an apparent global attack on the Canvas system, according to UIUC officials.
In an email to faculty, staff and students on Thursday, UIUC Provost John Coleman said that some users of the Canvas program viewed a message that contained malicious website links and other contact points and warned that clicking them could “be sources of malware or potential compromise.”
As a result, school officials postponed all final exams and assignments scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and extended the postponement to all classes, including those that didn’t use the system.
Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said late Thursday that the system was available for most users, but it was unclear if that altered the timeline for finals. UIUC officials weren’t available for comment Friday evening.
Among the other local universities affected was Northwestern University in Evanston, which, in an online message, stated school officials were working to reconnect to Canvas by Saturday morning.
A cybersecurity threat analyst says a hacking group called ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for breaching Canvas. An expert said the hackers posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed. Teachers had to find work-arounds to help students study for exams and submit final assignments, and some schools pushed back finals.
Coleman said UIUC officials would consult with the school deans and the senate executive committee regarding next steps and would provide additional details to the campus community before noon on Sunday.
Schools and universities use Canvas to manage nearly all aspects of instruction. The platform acts as a grade book, a hub for digital lectures and course materials, a discussion board for classroom projects, and a messaging platform between students and instructors.
The Associated Press contributed.
