Cyberattack blocks South Florida students from homework and testing tool

A cyberattack has blocked thousands of students in South Florida and across the nation from an online learning platform used to turn in homework, take online exams and communicate with teachers.

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On Thursday night, Broward County Public Schools issued an alert: “Canvas access temporarily blocked,” due a “cybersecurity incident.” The school district urged students to not log in to their accounts.

One Broward County student who logged in before the warning was greeted with a message from ShinyHunters, the group claiming responsibility for the cyberattack.

“ShinyHunters has breached Instructure (again). Instead of contacting us to resolve it, they ignored us and did some ‘security patches,” the messages reads.

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The group warned affected schools that if they wish to prevent the release of their private data, they will have until May 12 to contact them to negotiate a settlement.

Students at Florida International University are also blocked from using Canvas.

“FIU is actively coordinating with Instructure, the company that operates Canvas, to assess the situation and determine next steps,” the university wrote in a Thursday email to students. “The university’s cybersecurity team remains engaged with Instructure and is closely monitoring developments. Please be aware of potential phishing attempts offering to recover access to your Canvas data.”

Read more Cyberattack blocks South Florida students from homework and testing tool

This breaking news report will be updated.