Canvas available again from Wednesday

Canvas will be available again for staff and students from Wednesday. Staff will get access in the morning, with students following later in the day. That way, lecturers first have the opportunity to update their courses.

The university considers it responsible enough to take this step now. The decision is based on the experiences of other Dutch universities that have already put Canvas back into use, plus the extra security measures that parent company Instructure has taken.

Reopening in phases

The restart of Canvas will be done step by step. At every step, the security of Canvas will be monitored extra carefully, so that action can be taken if necessary. As a result, it may take a while before Canvas works exactly as it did before the hack. Microsoft Teams and ANS will remain available in the meantime as back-up options.

On Tuesday evening, an additional report from Instructure is expected. If this report leads to new insights, the university will announce this on Wednesday morning.

Deal

Instructure has made a deal with hacker group ShinyHunters, the group that was also behind the major cyberattack on telecoms provider Odido. ShinyHunters is said to have deleted all the stolen data from Canvas users and Canvas should again be safe to use. The hackers have confirmed the deal.

It isn’t known whether Instructure has paid the demanded ransom to the hackers.

System

Last week it became clear that the data of millions of lecturers and students had been stolen in a major hack. Canvas is often used as a means of communication between lecturers and students, for example for submitting assignments and viewing course materials and grades.

Data from more than 275 million Canvas users was stolen. Around nine thousand educational institutions were affected.

Stay alert to phishing

There remains a risk that students and staff will receive phishing emails. These are emails that, for example, appear to come from the university, but have secretly been sent by others. The university warns people to stay alert to this. Read what you can do against phishing..