Two days after a cybersecurity incident took Canvas offline, the system has been restored with limited functionality as recovery efforts continue, according to an email from Indiana University’s Information Technology Services on Sunday morning.
“We recognize the disruption this outage caused during a critical academic period,” UITS said in the email. “We appreciate your patience and flexibility as our teams work to restore service as safely and quickly as possible.”
Canvas went down around 4 p.m. Thursday, before the last day of final exams week, after a cybercrime group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for breaching Instructure, the company that operates Canvas. The group allegedly first hacked Instructure on May 1, also affecting up to nearly 9,000 schools worldwide, according to The Associated Press.
In a Friday email, UITS told students to stay in touch with instructors while the university prioritized restoring service “while also protecting IU’s data security.” Canvas access was suspended as the vendor and law enforcement worked to resolve the issue.
Now, all courses and files are now accessible for students, though some integrated tools, including eText tools, Google Assignments and Kaltura, remain limited. Students may experience continued issues or unavailable features, and they can view what is available at status.iu.edu.
Additional resources are available on IU’s Keep Learning website, which will be updated as recovery progresses. IU Bloomington students enrolled in summer courses, which will begin May 12, should monitor their university email for updates from instructors.
Courses, files and gradebooks have been restored for faculty.
The IU Keep Teaching website includes guidance and support resources, including information on submitting grades. Faculty with students who have outstanding spring semester assignments or exams are asked to contact them directly with course-specific guidance.
IU also urged students and faculty to stay alert for phishing attempts and report suspicious activity.
