ATLANTA — The popular school software program Canvas is back online after the program’s parent company reached an agreement with hackers who brought the system to its knees last week.
According to an update from Instructure, it said that all of its data was returned to them and that “no Instructure customers will be extorted as a result of this incident, publicly or otherwise.”
“While there is never complete certainty when dealing with cyber criminals, we believe it was important to take every step within our control to give customers additional peace of mind, to the extent possible,” Instructure said.
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Schools and universities use Canvas to manage nearly all aspects of instruction. The platform acts as a gradebook, a hub for digital lectures and course materials, a discussion board for classroom projects, and a messaging platform between students and instructors.
Some courses also give quizzes and exams on the platform, or use it as a portal where final projects and papers are submitted on deadline.
A hacking group called ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Canvas, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft.
The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Connolly said.
Instructure did not give any details about the agreement that was reached, including whether they made a ransom payment or not.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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