“We are working quickly to understand the extent of the incident and actively taking steps to minimise its impact,” wrote Instructure chief information security officer Steve Proud.<\/p>\n
This morning Mr Proud gave an update, saying the company believed it had “contained” the security incident.<\/p>\n
“While we continue actively investigating, thus far, indications are that the information involved consists of certain identifying information of users at affected institutions, such as names, email addresses, and student ID numbers, as well as messages among users,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“At this time, we have found no evidence that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information were involved. If that changes, we will notify any impacted institutions.”<\/p>\n
The federal government’s National Office of Cyber Security is coordinating a response.<\/p>\n
Cyber security industry website BleepingComputer said notorious hacking group ShinyHunters had claimed responsibility for the breach.<\/p>\n
The group recently also claimed responsibility for hacking developer Rockstar \u2014 the makers of one of the largest video game franchises in the world, Grand Theft Auto. Data from the that breach was released online after a ransom was not paid.<\/p>\n
It is understood the compromised Canvas data has not been publicly released at this stage.<\/p>\n
State schools, universities and TAFE affected<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of Queensland students and teachers studying or working at Queensland state schools since 2020 were among those affected, according to the state government.<\/p>\n
In a statement, education minister John-Paul Langbroek said early advice suggested more than 200 million people could be impacted worldwide by the data breach, across more than 9,000 schools, universities and other institutions, and that principals would contact affected families.<\/p>\n
Instructure delivered the Queensland Education Department’s online learning platform, QLearn.<\/p>\n
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John-Paul Langbroek says tens of thousands of Queensland students have been affected by the data breach. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n
Mr Langbroek said his department was providing “priority support” to families known to child safety authorities, or those with a known history of domestic and family violence, and that school principals were in the process of contacting families and teachers about the breach.<\/p>\n
Tasmania’s Department of Education also confirmed state schools used the Canvas platform to track learning between staff and students and that it had been notified about the breach.<\/p>\n
“Investigations commenced immediately and are ongoing. At this stage, while DECYP has been identified as being impacted by the cyber security incident, the specific impact of the incident is subject to further investigation by Instructure,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n