Arabic version: استعادة الجامعات الوصول إلى كانفاس مع اقتراب تهديدات إلكترونية

Hundreds of thousands of students were last week caught up in an incident of cybercrime relating to the online learning management system Canvas. According to ABC News, Australian universities and education departments have started regaining access to Canvas, following a global outage last week caused by the hacking group ShinyHunters.

While some institutions have restored access, others continue to struggle, hindering students’ ability to access learning materials and submit assignments. The hacking group has warned it will leak the compromised information unless a settlement is negotiated by the end of May 12.

The University of Sydney announced that access to Canvas had been “fully restored” over the weekend, allowing teaching and learning to resume as planned. RMIT University also restored access on Monday afternoon, and the University of Melbourne confirmed its restoration as well. However, Swinburne University and the Queensland University of Technology were yet to regain access as of Monday afternoon.

The hacking incident has disrupted classes and postponed exams at many institutions. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, indicated that compromised information may include names, student IDs, email addresses, and messages, but reassured that no sensitive data like passwords or financial information was involved. Meanwhile, the Australian Signals Directorate warns against paying ransoms, as there is no guarantee of regaining access or preventing further breaches.