While some colleges may have begun restoring access to Canvas, Shoreline College will continue restricting access through the weekend out of an abundance of caution while additional security reviews are completed.  After speaking with our unions and other college leadership, we feel this is the best option to pursue in a situation that is continually evolving. 

The college’s Incident Response Team will reconvene at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning to review the latest information and determine next steps. We will provide another campus update shortly thereafter. 

IMPORTANT CANVAS INSTRUCTIONS 

If you are currently logged into Canvas on either your computer or mobile device, please log out of Canvas on all devices. 

CANVAS ALTERNATIVES & FACULTY INSTRUCTIONS 

While Canvas remains inaccessible, faculty and staff should work directly with students to establish alternative methods for communication, distributing course materials, and receiving assignments as appropriate. Fortunately, other college systems, including ctcLink, Outlook email, and Microsoft Teams, continue to function normally and should be used for communication and course support during this interruption. If you need support setting any of these alternative options up, please send a message to eLearning@shoreline.edu and someone on the eLearning team will reply as soon as they are able. 

If you anticipate challenges continuing instruction during this interruption, please reach out to your unit administrator to discuss available support and next steps. In the meantime, please make sure you are communicating directly with your students via email regarding expectations, course continuity, and any adjustments for your individual classes. Yesterday we sent an email with instructions for accessing your roster via ctcLink in case you need assistance. 

Students will also be receiving an update, as well as instructions for how to update their email address in ctcLink as we have been getting reports of several bounce back emails. 

Again, we understand this situation is disruptive and appreciate your continued patience and flexibility as we work through this incident. We will continue to share updates as they become available. 

At approximately 1:00 p.m. today, Canvas experienced a nationwide outage impacting access to online courses and related services. At this time, we have not received confirmation regarding the cause of the outage or an estimated timeline for restoration of service.

The college is actively monitoring the situation and remaining in communication with relevant partners as updates become available. 

Our Incident Response Team will reconvene tomorrow morning to discuss possible next steps should this become a prolonged outage.

In the meantime, please make sure you are communicating directly with your students regarding any course impacts or alternative arrangements. Faculty may access directions for pulling class rosters and student email addresses from ctcLink.

We understand the disruption this may cause for students, faculty, and staff and appreciate your patience as we work through the situation. Additional updates and guidance will be shared as more information becomes available.

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.