SMU later pushed finals originally scheduled for Friday to Sunday because of the disruption.
DALLAS, Texas — A cyberattack targeting one of the country’s largest online education platforms disrupted schools and universities across North Texas this week, forcing some districts to scramble for alternatives during one of the busiest times of the school year.
The attack impacted Canvas, a widely used learning management system that students and teachers rely on for assignments, grades, lecture notes and exams.
But at Southern Methodist University, journalism students say they felt the effects in more ways than one. “It was a bit stressful,” said Taylor Good, a journalism student.
Students at SMU told WFAA they suddenly lost access to study materials in the middle of finals week. “My rubrics for the two essays I’m writing are on there. My study guide for my class is on there,” said Brianna Gapsiewicz, another student.
The outage also became a breaking news story that students in the journalism program had to cover themselves.
“It was kind of jarring in a way as I was logging in, and it would just log me back out,” said Good.
SMU later pushed finals originally scheduled for Friday to Sunday because of the disruption. “A few hours later, I get the email that exams are rescheduled to Sunday, and I was like, ‘oh,’” said Gapsiewicz.
Canvas’ parent company, Instructure, confirmed the cyberattack Thursday and said it was linked to the hacking group ShinyHunters. According to the company, the group demanded payment and threatened to release data. Instructure says the investigation remains ongoing.
The company also said the breach affected schools worldwide.
Analysts told WFAA hackers claimed as many as 9,000 schools were impacted. The outage stretched beyond SMU.
University of North Texas released a statement acknowledging the disruption, while districts including Rockwall Independent School District, Cleburne Independent School District and Allen Independent School District alerted families about trouble accessing Canvas.
Some districts said there was no indication student data had been compromised, while others temporarily shifted to alternative teaching methods.
Students at SMU said the outage exposed how dependent education has become on technology.
“We put so much of it online… what’s the backup plan in case stuff like this does happen?” said Juan Diego Llamas. “We need to have like Plan B’s obviously.”
For many students across North Texas, the cyberattack became more than just a technical issue during finals week. It became a reminder of how quickly everyday systems can suddenly stop working.