Canvas data breach

Shoreline College is aware of a recently reported cybersecurity incident involving Instructure, the company that provides Canvas. According to public reporting, the threat actor claims the incident involved data associated with approximately 9,000 educational institutions worldwide. This incident was not limited to Shoreline College. Instructure has stated that its investigation is ongoing and that the incident has been contained.

Based on Instructure’s current update, the information involved may include certain identifying information for users at affected institutions, such as names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages among users. We also want to clarify that our Canvas environment does not store additional user contact or sensitive personal information such as addresses, financial information, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, or other government identifiers.

Instructure has also reported taking precautionary steps, including revoking privileged credentials and access tokens, deploying security fixes, rotating certain keys, and increasing monitoring across its platforms.

Because names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and Canvas messages may have been involved for some affected institutions, please be alert for suspicious emails that reference Canvas, coursework, enrollment, grades, financial aid, or account access. Do not click unexpected links, open unexpected attachments, or provide your password or personal information in response to an unsolicited message.

Please remember:

• Shoreline College will never ask for your password by email, text, or phone.
• Use only official college websites and login pages to access Canvas and other college services.
• Report suspicious messages to Technology Support Services (TSS) at support@shoreline.edu.

If you experience trouble accessing a Canvas-integrated tool, you may be asked to check the “authorize” button when any external tools are launched. This includes textbooks and external applications like Panopto. You may also reach out to eLearning Services to ask for assistance at elearning@shoreline.edu.

At this time, we are continuing to monitor Instructure’s status and updates and will share additional information if we learn more about the impact to our users.

Thank you for your attention and caution.