University of North Texas faculty reported that they were locked out of Canvas on Thursday afternoon.
Canvas is a widely used, web-based learning management system, a sort of digital classroom where educators load materials and assignments for students, and where students submit assignments and get their grades.
Texas Woman's University posted a message on its website confirming it has also been affected, and a TWU spokesperson said users will have additional time to complete tasks as a result.
UNT leadership confirmed that the platform was disabled.
"As a precautionary measure related to the recent security incident involving Instructure Canvas... campus-wide access to the Canvas application has been temporarily disabled while the parent company, Instructure, continues its investigation and remediation efforts," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
UNT said it is working with the appropriate teams to discover the impact of the breach.
The University of Texas at Dallas and UT-Arlington also posted messages that their communities were unable to access the platform.
The outage hit the day before UNT and TWU commencement ceremonies begin.
North Central Texas College officials hadn't responded to an inquiry about the status of Canvas for their community.
In the last few weeks, hackers from a criminal extortion group known as ShinyHunters had breached Instructure, the education technology company that owns Canvas. ShinyHunters have also been linked to data breaches at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Harvard universities.
Colleges and school districts maintain large databases that include sensitive and protected information. Schools are routinely subjected to data breach extortion, where hackers use ransomware programs to lock users out of digital platforms they rely on, and demand payment in exchange for access and cybersecurity.
In an email to the UNT community, Sampath Pamidimukkala said, "Canvas is currently unavailable." Pamidimukkala is the assistant vice president of academic technologies at UNT.
"The Canvas team is aware of the issue and is actively working to restore service," he said.
Matt Flores, assistant vice president of communications, confirmed that its users were locked out of the platform.
"The university is aware this will impact submissions such as assignments and grades to the Canvas platform," Flores said. "The university is extending leniency to Canvas platform users because of these circumstances and will provide guidance as soon as additional details become available."
The Denton Record-Chronicle reached out to Denton ISD, which uses the platform, according to the district's website. Nick Petito, the Denton ISD Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, said the district is unable to access the platform, and that the district had notified families and staff members.
"All other systems are operating normally so it's only the Canvas learning management platform that is down," Petito said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of UNT faculty members are unable to access student tests, papers and projects to review and grade.
A UNT faculty member told the Denton Record-Chronicle that grades are due on Monday. The outage comes at a time when traffic on the UNT Canvas platform is at a peak.
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
For more than 120 years, the Denton Record-Chronicle has been Denton County's source for locally produced, fact-based journalism. Your support through a tax-deductible donation or low-cost subscription is vital to our ability to deliver credible, relevant, unique coverage of our community.
