A ransomware attack on Canvas, a learning platform used by thousands of U.S. school districts, exposed data for millions of users. Robert Siciliano warns parents to watch for phishing scams and explains what information attackers may have accessed.
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Developing tonight at 10:30, an app used by several school districts in Central Florida hacked.
It's called Canvas and it's used to manage assignments and grades. Fox 35's Larissa Leone is joining us live tonight. So Larissa, what does this mean for parents?
Well, around 8,000 school districts have been affected by this breach. School information, IDs, uh, emails, those types of things all compromised. And now the district is alerting Parents to be wary of scams. Orange County Public Schools sounding the alarm on a major cybersecurity breach. District leaders were notified that Instructure, the company behind the widely used Canvas learning platform, was targeted by an unauthorized third party. OCPS is one out of thousands of schools nationwide who are affected. Internet expert Robert Siciliano says this is a huge breach.
This particular breach, uh, looks like it's affecting as many as 8,000 different schools, could be as many as 270,000 50 million people are affected by this.
The district confirmed the breach happened just days ago on May 2nd. While the investigation is ongoing, we know the hackers may have accessed sensitive user data. This includes names, email addresses, and student identification numbers. They also say that some private messages sent within the platform may have been accessed.
When that data is breached, often it leads to some form of fraud. The information is often sold to criminals that use the data for specific types of scams.
It's not just OCPS. Several local districts and colleges use this system. Volusia County, Brevard, and the University of South Florida announcing they have blocked the use of Instructure system on their campuses. As of now, OCPS district leaders say there is no evidence that passwords, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or any financial information were involved in the incident. In the meantime, the district is urging all families to be extremely cautious. If you receive an unexpected email, do not click any links. It could be a phishing attempt.
What we all need to do is be on the lookout for emails coming from the schools and what the motivation of that email is. If they're asking you to click something, download something, or provide any sensitive information, simply don't.
The Seminole County School District is also blocking this breach system. It is still unclear how many local families are affected by that breach, but once we know, we will of course update you on air and online. Larissa Leone, Fox 35 News. Larissa, thank Thank you.
