![\"Generic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4KJANF9_Education_Auckland_Uni1_JPG_1.jpeg\")
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\nThe University of Auckland’s clock tower. (File photo)
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Ziming Li\n<\/p>\n
University students across New Zealand cannot submit assignments or communicate with tutors after their online learning system was hit by a global data hack.<\/p>\n
Names, email addresses, student ID numbers and messages between users could all be affected by the breach.<\/p>\n
Do you know more? Email luka.forman@rnz.co.nz<\/p>\n
Learning platform Canvas was offline, and the university said it was working urgently on workarounds to minimise the impact on teaching and learning on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Canvas data was held by third party platform Instructure, which had its data hacked.<\/p>\n
Impacted universities included the University of Auckland, AUT and the Victoria University of Wellington.<\/p>\n
The University of Auckland said in a statement the university’s own systems had not been breached and no other systems were at risk.<\/p>\n
It said there was no suggestion that any student assessment data, passwords or sign-on credentials had been affected.<\/p>\n
An email sent to staff at AUT, confirmed it had been impacted by the hack also.<\/p>\n
It said the university’s ICT team were working with Instructure and would advise when more was known.<\/p>\n
It asked all staff to log out of Canvas.<\/p>\n
RNZ understands the hackers posted a message in the Canvas system and asked schools to contact them to reach a settlement.<\/p>\n
An AUT staffer told RNZ the platform was used to submit assignments, post readings and communicate with students.<\/p>\n
They said students often wrote messages to tutors on the platform with private information in them.<\/p>\n
In a statement AUT said while the platform was down, students wouldn’t have to submit assessments, and extensions would be given based on how long it was down for.<\/p>\n
Auckland University said some accommodations might be necessary where assessments were concerned.<\/p>\n
Canvas was used in 9000 education systems around the world.<\/p>\n
AFP was reporting, the hack had also hit US universities including Harvard, Stanford.<\/p>\n
According to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper and posts on social media, students attempting to access the system on Thursday saw a message from the hacking group saying servers belonging to Canvas’s parent company Instructure had “again” been breached.<\/p>\n
“Instead of contacting us to resolve it they ignored us and did some ‘security patches,'” the hackers said.<\/p>\n
“If any of the schools in the affected list are interested in preventing the release of their data, please consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact us privately…to negotiate a settlement.”<\/p>\n
The group warned it would release all stolen data if schools did not make contact by May 12.<\/p>\n