Universities: Data Security & System Reliability
13 posts across 10 communities in the last 30 days; 15% from r/ApplyingToCollege.
“https://preview.redd.it/429s9d9eypvh1.png?width=834&format=png&auto=webp&s=2275ffe2644918b2ef6ec1eb8b62d1dd32563837 My session crashed I can't log in on the web, my dots is missing from Codex. GPT's having some issues, but should be back soon.”
“I regularly have students submitting assignments multiple times when they forget an attachment or have trouble getting different file types to attach at the same time, so I've always told them, "don't worry, I can see all your submissions, so if you can't attach two files at the…”
“How many times can I check my portal to see if the withdraw application option is still there? And why do I always at first think it’s gone, but then upon closer inspection it’s still there?😩”
Universities and their students are experiencing significant disruption and anxiety due to data breaches and system outages impacting Canvas, their learning management system. This leads to concerns about data security, inadequate responses to incidents, and a lack of reliable infrastructure, ultimately impacting the learning experience and creating unnecessary stress for all involved.
SOURCES (60)
“Your phone logged where you were and your bank logged when you paid. Some of that deletes itself after a while, and people rarely mention it when it matters. Following the Cornell story is what pushed me to finish it. The public verdict showed up…”
“https://preview.redd.it/429s9d9eypvh1.png?width=834&format=png&auto=webp&s=2275ffe2644918b2ef6ec1eb8b62d1dd32563837 My session crashed I can't log in on the web, my dots is missing from Codex. GPT's having some issues, but should be back soon. submitted by /u/KrystalUnity [link] [comments]”
“I regularly have students submitting assignments multiple times when they forget an attachment or have trouble getting different file types to attach at the same time, so I've always told them, "don't worry, I can see all your submissions, so if you can't attach two files at the same time, just do two submissions" This term, that dropdown menu in SpeedGrader has disappeared, so I can't see previous submissions. Has anyone else run into this? I'm going to submit to t”
“are the apps gonna be down this year cuz of the brutal incident at Cornell and abhorrent response by uni staf toward the case submitted by /u/Inevitable-Cow-8489 [link] [comments]”
“How many times can I check my portal to see if the withdraw application option is still there? And why do I always at first think it’s gone, but then upon closer inspection it’s still there?😩 submitted by /u/Klutzy-Chicken5336 [link] [comments]”
“Your post/comment has been determined to be a low-effort post or comment. This includes title-only posts, easily searchable questions, vague/open-ended discussion prompts, LLM generated posts or comments, and posts/comments that do not provide enough context for meaningful replies or discussion.”
“I’m the TA for a class and in the course Canvas page a student was added as a teacher in addition to being a student. The instructor of record was on the phone with Canvas tech support, according to Canvas tech support, this student was manually added as a teacher. The student is no longer listed as a teacher but we are concerned about the ability of someone to manipulate who has access to what from the outside. The student who was added as a teacher bombed the latest quiz so it seems unlikely t”
“I agree with that it's probably a bot. The JS behavior is the part that stands out to me too. If those extra JPGs are lazy-loaded when you scroll, a normal browser visit would usually trigger them, while a basic script just making HTTP requests wouldn't. The Tor exit node and the fact that it's mostly hitting / and /favicon.ico also make automated traffic seem pretty likely. Doesn't necessarily mean it's a scanner though. Could just be some bot poking around. I'd just mak”
“hi guys, i figured out how to fix it, i had to delete cookies / cache by resetting my chrome settings (school laptop)”
“I am not talking about a stupid text file. There is no official details on how the breach actually occurred so assuming the department was just wide open is stupid.”
“If I had a dollar for every "Sorry something broke" message or rubric items would actually stay clicked on while grading instead of magically not being clicked I could retire. submitted by /u/Better_Maximum3444 [link] [comments]”
“Any updates? The same thing just happened to me, I had to change my password because I kept seeing logins from a chrome browser, and there was also a phone number on my account I don’t recognize and never added. I removed it, changed my password and behold, my account was locked today for suspicious login activity.”
“thank you for this info. I did see that my data breach alert told me I have 150 re-used passwords! I will be sure to not re-use again.”
“I went to a top engineering school and years ago they switched from hosting their own email to using Microsoft cloud email.”
“Ohh… interesting. That actually sounds like it could be useful? Still don’t trust the idea of it from a security standpoint but it might be helpful.”
“I luckily don't have to deal with payment stuff at all. All students get a set quota that resets at the end of the semster, with a system to request more in justified cases. For any usecases that can't be covered by that, they can go to one of the copy shops on campus.”
We eventually limited that to being in campus or Eduroam networks.
“From the very brief notes,t hat seems to be the case. Fortunately for us,we use the internal database”
“Why are orgs still allowing un-approved websites to modify clipboards... This has been a thing for a long long time. https://www.tenable.com/audits/items/CIS_Google_Chrome_L1_v3.0.0.audit:adb6a87c526dab58e148b913dfd9cc6c https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/default-clipboard-setting/”
“And "don't put your log in credentials into a random Google form" because apparently that's a problem we still haven't learned to not do”
“Yep, seen that on some hacked WordPress sites. Do not run the code! If possible, contact the site owner via some other means, to let them know the site "doesn't look right" - as quite often they are oblivious to the issue.”
“各位救命啊，我試著登入 FAFSA 的時候，它顯示「拒絕存取，你沒有權限存取 (網站) 在這個伺服器上」。 還有，我住在美國境外，但我還是美國人，我試著用 Safari 裡的私人網站或chrome 瀏覽器還有換網路連線、用我的 iphone什麼都試過了。真的不知道該怎麼辦！ submitted by /u/Senior-Amphibian5987 [link] [comments]”
“Should I create a separate homework / assignment in canvas and somehow link that to crowdmark? How does it work? submitted by /u/Secure-Nobody-2103 [link] [comments]”
“The biggest concern is what happens after hours when a student clicks one of these links. The college has a small IT team and can't have someone watching Defender/Entra alerts 24/7. Yeah, most small orgs can't, which is why you contract with a third party MDR/SOC provider who can. If you're an MSP, vendors like Huntress are prime options. They can contain compromised accounts without intervention from you or your customer.”
Any ITS users having issues staying logged in and needing verification codes to log in? We are having to get 4 to 6 codes per day. submitted by /u/Instahgator [link] [comments]
“Ah I wish networks catch on very fast… makes me wonder what takes them so long to answer tickets”
“We flipped from Blackboard to Canvas and they screwed up the migration of courses. This all occurred over the summer when no one was around. I haven't even looked at Canvas yet and have this weekend to get up to speed. Oh and of course it's the semester I have a class with 240 students. Am I going to hate my life this semester? Why can't it all be analog?! Any tips you can offer to ease my suffering? submitted by /u/Acrobatic-Glass-8585 [link] [comments]”
Well yeah. The title was a way to catch attention Lmao. But to be honest my situation is a bit unique. The uni is in a bit of a desolate area with…
“I’m trying to find out what Canvas assessment data from an old quiz/exam may still be available to instructors. The assessment was taken last year, and an issue with it was emailed to the professor at the time, but there was never a response. Does anyone know how long Canvas retains detailed assessment information, particularly things like quiz logs, answers that were typed/entered during the assessment, or other activity data? Would an instructor still be able to access that information a year”
“We do but have training courses and etc. we can not suspend teachers for falling for it unfortunately.”
“We are using Dmarc but I can’t filter due to teachers being required to emailed parents.”
“This has also happened to me and I think the lecturers name was in the foot notes or on source material, also think it could have used the meta data for whoever created the module file for the course I was studying”
“OP pointed out that it DOES show some old info.... I regularly see messages like this unfortunately.”
“Given the stories of the havoc that Open Claw has wrought (deleted databases, emails, etc.) I can't imagine any possible happy ending to using AI to manipulate your Canvas shell. But then I think how great it would be to have Open Claw automatically update all the dates for the semester, and modify the module titles to include the new dates, and then maybe just provide a little feedback on low stakes assignments, and then respond to Canvas mail, but only from that one super anxious student w”
“I keep getting this error: Security Error The authentication process failed or the page is not accessible to you at this moment. Please contact your site administrator. I'm not sure if this is just me or anyone else is facing this problem too, it's happening in incognito mode and multiple browsers. submitted by /u/VastBumblebee1 [link] [comments]”
“I tested out the Roll Call feature on Canvas for recording attendance this summer. I am definitely going to use it in the fall. I changed the grade percentage for attendance from 5-10% of the total grade. I did this not because I care so much about attendance; rather, it’s the lack of accountability from students who are habitually absent. They bombard me with emails in an attempt to get me to teach them everything they missed remotely (I teach face to face). They also beg for make ups when my s”
“Hi Folks, I've previously only worked in Canvas, so am used to being able to preview my exams prior to releasing them to students. This has been helpful for me to spot any errors I may have made. I can't find an easy way to preview exams in Blackboard Ultra. Am I missing something? Can anyone help me? Thanks! submitted by /u/Fearless_Strike1618 [link] [comments]”
“When you lock down your work, ain't you afraid that the company that is requesting your work, has hackers working for them? I don't know how all this works, I'm a real life computer dummy.”
“I highly recommend you run this past IT before using. The last thing you want is being caught using an unapproved program to log sensitive information.”
“Anyone else getting a "403 forbidden" when they try to access their secondary page..like what.. submitted by /u/cinnamongg [link] [comments]”
“My school switched from Canvas to Blackboard Ultra this summer because it was cheaper. Now I think I see why. This weekend, no one could access anything that had been linked on the site. All our documents, videos, PowerPoints and any other material we use to teach the class was inaccessible. This was not just me, it was everyone at my school from what I understand. Did anyone else have this issue? So far, I think Blackboard Ultra is a trash fire. I never thought I'd miss Canvas, but I do. &#”
“just got two reset password requests from two different school AMPs is someone hacking my accounts or is secondary season making me insane??? resetting my password for that email btw! submitted by /u/Comfortable_Stop1327 [link] [comments]”
“Does anybody know of any workarounds to remove old online course materials from Canvas—even just partial deletions? This when the institution’s policy keeps the course shells in the university’s clutches for a minimum of five (5!) years?! I’ve revisited my old modules, discussions, assignments, and even the files areas; none of them allow/offer options to delete. Neither bulk, nor individually. Same deal in the Settings menu. . . . This is my former institution’s policy, and it’s frustrating tha”
“I've spent about two weeks trying to bring my score up on my Canvas sites. One thing that no one (no one!) tells you is that if your LMS is Canvas, check under the "files" button. You'll find duplicates of every file and document you've ever, ever used for this course and other courses that you copied into this course. What this means is that if I'm getting "bonged" for posting one .pdf, I may have 2 or 3 or 6 exact same copies in this "file" tab whi”
“I'm a Cyber Defense student trying to understand what's happening behind the scenes, and I'm hoping someone here who has administered Canvas or uCertify can explain it. My college course started on June 8, and none of the students in my class have received access to the required uCertify course. We are now three weeks into an eight-week summer course. Here's what I've been able to figure out: We use Canvas with a uCertify integration. Canvas successfully launches uCertify. I”
“Ok, I’m tired. Last 2 months I’ve had countless amounts of students fill out fake forms and get compromised. Seems it’s constantly token theft and I can’t find anything to stop it. Most things I’ve found are restricting to intune devices which we can’t, restricting to networks, which we can’t, and more. We have geo block set, have it set that if flagged for high risk account gets locked in conditional access, but it constantly happens. Has anyone by in the education side of admins figured a good”
“I keep all my login stuff in a locked notes. Anyone else doing that? I just had to register for like 9 new accounts/profiles/etc during the start of residency submitted by /u/gubernaculum62 [link] [comments]”
“I do very little of this kind of thing on my Canvas pages, but I just went in and checked my little HTML-coded dropdown sections and they still work as expected. I'm wondering if they made some backend changes to prepare for Title II compliance? Could that have screwed up your pages?”
“I'm wondering if this is just me or if it's widespread. We use Canvas, and I have developed lots of Pages for my course that give information (like the syllabus, how labs are run, etc.). I use html to organize these pages so they have tabs, and ever since the hack I've noticed that this seems mildly broken. I didn't change anything in the files at all but suddenly one tab just won't work, and if I go into the code it is missing a tag. I fix it, save it, but the fix never seem”
“Same here! All my courses are hosted on Canvas Instructure, which are my main income. Really need access to content so I can download it.”
“This is insane. On one hand I’m elated that we all might get 100s on our final, on the other hand I’m worried my SSN is in the hands of some lowlife hacker. Literally had an exam today was all prepared then boom no canvas lmao. Depending on how long it’s out, this might also bite the teachers who take two weeks to grade. Because obviously now they can’t grade. Does anyone know if since the hackers are in Canvas, can they access our university’s SSO platform? Like connected to our finances, regis”
“A post from \"ShinyHunters\" claiming they breached Instructure (Canvas) and demanding ranso by 05/12/26 I heard about the recent cybersecurity breach of Canvas. I'm not able to access many assignments, they just show this page. Anyone else affected? I'm attending UC Denver. Obviously, I do not recommend visiting any of the links posted and waiting for someone else to take the risk for you. submitted by /u/TheSoloGamer [link] [comments]”