Hackers just stole data from 9,000 schools and unis around the world. How can we protect student privacy? |
This week, US-based education technology provider Instructure announced a significant cybersecurity incident affecting its Canvas system. This is used by schools and universities around the world, including in Australia.
Cyber crime group ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility. On Thursday, the group claimed it had breached Instructure in another attack. Almost 9,000 educational institutions, involving 275 million students, teachers and staff are understood to be caught up in the data breach.
The hack has seen school login pages defaced. In Australia, students at institutions such as the University of Melbourne have been unable to submit assignments amid a global outage. The Queensland government’s “early advice” is students and staff working or studying at public schools since 2020 have been affected.
Instructure confirmed the exposed information may include names, email addresses, student identification numbers and private messages exchanged between users.
Learning is online – and so is student information
Canvas is widely used across the Australian education sector. It is one of several digital “learning management........