For many of us, the recent Canvas Ransomware attack was ill-timed (right at the end of our spring term) and unsettling. Regardless of our LMS solution, we have had an odd complacency – because we had never had a disruption like this, we assumed immunity. That complacency was seriously disrupted with this attack.
It was reported that half of all colleges and universities are now on Canvas. Since the disruption, a number of institutions have been looking to cancel contracts and pivot to another LMS solution. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what LMS you are using. Actually, it doesn’t matter what third-party solution you are using for anything on your campus – be it your student information system or your accounting program. Seemingly everything is vulnerable – cybersecurity has become a major concern. And with the arrival of Generative AI, the variety and complexity of attacks are expected to increase exponentially.
As for the current reality of cyberattacks: from the FBI/Microsoft:
- Official Reports: The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) processes over 2,350 reported cybercrimes daily.
- Ransomware & Breaches: The US is consistently the number-one target globally for ransomware, with thousands of incidents affecting critical infrastructure and commercial entities annually.
- Automated & IoT Threats: Automated attacks, such as IoT malware and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attempts, add hundreds of thousands of daily pings and scans to the total volume.
- The Global Scale: Global tech giants like Microsoft report defending against hundreds of millions of hostile cyber operations worldwide every single day
- The Big Picture: when including minor hostile signals, background network scans, and attempted phishing, the volume reaches into the billions per day.
Canvas reported that the initial breach occurred when a part-time instructor opened a phishing email – and the rest is history. Every student, every staff member and every faculty member on every campus represents a possible breach; every third-party enterprise solution as well as our own website is a target. Nefarious neer-do-wells of the world are working 24/7 to get around our institution’s security protocols. All of this re-affirms what each and every one of our Information Technology (IT) Departments tell us all the time:
- We are at risk of this sort of thing happening on our campus
- Do the PD training regarding the methods of malware and phishing attacks (this likely is mandatory training these days)
- Adhere to the practices outlined in the PD training
- Change your password on a regular basis – and please make it more complex than “mypassword”
Every student, every staff member and every faculty member on every campus represents a possible breach; every third-party enterprise solution
Recommended Reading
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Entry-level productivity expectations have increased due to AI, report says, Education Dive
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How higher education is responding to the Canvas LMS incident and preparing for what’s next, Educause
The recent ransomware incident affecting Instructure's Canvas LMS has raised urgent questions across the higher education community about cybersecurity risk, privacy, and resilience.
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Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) offers both opportunities and challenges for open education.
Why dual credit needs better pathway design, University Business Magazine
Dual credit has grown in popularity, with 34% of students nationally taking dual credit courses. It has become one of the most visible access strategies for students but access alone does not guarantee better long-term outcomes. If those credits do not apply to a credential or transfer pathway, students may simply be accumulating courses without making meaningful progress.
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