U of I postpones finals, schools scramble following cyberattack on popular learning tool Canvas

Many Illinois colleges and schools are scrambling after the online learning platform Canvas went offline Thursday following a cyberattack on its parent company.

The shutdown forced the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to postpone all final exams and assignments scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leaders told students in a message sent Thursday night.

Thousands of K-12 school districts and colleges use Canvas nationwide, including U of I and Northwestern University, to manage classes, post assignments and communicate with students.

Infrastructure, which runs Canvas, said last week that it had experienced a “cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor” that exposed the names, email addresses, student ID numbers of users, as well as internal messages. A hacking group claimed responsibility for the data breach.

Northwestern University said Canvas remained offline as of Friday morning and provided suggestions for professors to stay in touch with students and accept student work while it’s down.