North Texas schools are assessing the damage left from a data breach affecting the education platform Canvas.

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A group known as ShinyHunters launched a cyberattack against the platform’s parent company, Instructure, threatening to release data stolen from colleges and school districts that use the platform if the company didn’t agree to pay a ransom.

The attack interrupted service nationwide. Although access was restored Friday, school districts and colleges are still dealing with fallout from the breach.

Related: What is Canvas, the online platform used by schools nationwide hit by a cyberattack?

On Thursday, Daniel Ramirez, chief information security officer for the Texas Education Agency, released guidance to school districts advising them on steps they should take, including reviewing account security and monitoring for suspicious activity. The agency is working directly with Instructure through the Fort Worth-based Education Service Center 11, Ramirez said.

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A number of North Texas districts sent notices to parents about the attack. In a letter sent Friday morning, Garland ISD officials assured parents that the district doesn’t store any sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, home addresses or passwords in Canvas. The district manages grades through Skyward, a separate platform, officials said, and students wouldn’t be penalized for not turning in any assignments that were affected by the breach.

The breach hit universities across the country, like Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan, according to their student newspapers. Several North Texas schools lost access to Canvas, including Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas System, Baylor University, and Tarrant County College. 

The cyberattack came just as students were preparing for final exams. At SMU, final exams scheduled for Friday were postponed until Sunday, officials said in a Thursday email. The same day, Baylor University also announced plans to delay final exams scheduled for Friday. 

The University of Texas at Arlington said its Information Security office is assessing the impact on students. 

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According to its website, Tarrant County College is monitoring the situation, noting that the “breach remains isolated.” There is no evidence that passwords, financial information or social security numbers were compromised, the school said. 

Fort Worth ISD and Canvas attack

Ale Checka, a teacher at Southwest High School in Fort Worth ISD, said leaders at her school sent out an email Thursday advising teachers to shut down their computers and make sure their students had done the same. The school librarian, who also handles tech issues, then went to every teacher and asked them to make sure their phones were off the school’s WiFi network, she said.

On Friday morning, the school’s principal announced that teachers and students could get back online but should still avoid logging into Canvas. That was a major disruption for teachers, Checka said. Students couldn’t access or submit assignments through the platform. Many teachers had entire lesson modules stored in Canvas and haven’t had paper copies for years, she said.

Checka said she was less affected than some of her colleagues because she avoids using the platform as much as possible.

“It’s just a pain in the butt, and that’s on the best day,” she said.

The Canvas breach isn’t the first time Fort Worth ISD has dealt with cybersecurity issues. In March 2020, just days before the pandemic shut down campuses, a malware attack shut down the district’s website and computer network. That attack was more disruptive, Checka said, because it not only prevented them from communicating with students, but also prevented them from using the network to communicate with each other.

“On the scale of disruptive ransomware attacks, this one is less bad,” she said.

North Texas school districts, colleges affected by Canvas outage

• Fort Worth ISD
• Garland ISD
• Southern Methodist University
• Tarrant County College
• University of North Texas System
• University of Texas at Arlington

This story will be updated.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.

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