Cyber attack disrupts swathe of US and Canada universities and schools

A cyber attack on Thursday hit several universities and schools in the US and Canada, causing chaos, confusion and major disruptions amid the high stakes end-of-year season.

The hacking group ShinyHunters reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused the academic software Canvas used by thousands of schools and universities to go offline.

By late Thursday, the company Instructure, which owns Canvas, posted an update on its website saying that Canvas was "available for most users".

The cyber attacks targeted universities and schools across North America, from New York to Vancouver.

Penn State University wrote in a message to students that "no one has access" to Canvas, adding that a "resolution" was unlikely to arrive "within the next 24 hours". The university cancelled some exams scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

In an update on Thursday evening, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver informed students that Canvas was "unavailable due to a cyber breach of its parent company Instructure," and advised them to log out immediately.

The University of Toronto also reported it was impacted by the breach, saying that "multiple universities were affected".

Students at the University of California Los Angeles struggled to submit assignments online through the Canvas platform, and the University of Chicago, in Illinois, temporarily disabled its Canvas page after reports that it was targeted.

The Chicago Maroon, the university-led newspaper, posted a screenshot of a message from ShinyHunters that appeared to be seeking a ransom.

The message encouraged the university to contact the hacking group privately "to negotiate a settlement" and avoiding "the release of their data".

Screen shots show the targeted threats from the group began on Sunday, with deadlines given on Thursday and 12 May, Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cyber security firm Emisoft, told the Associated Press.

He said discussions regarding extortion payments could be ongoing.

The cyber attack came the same day that the top US Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to the Trump administration urging for more defence against cyber risks in the age of rapidly developing AI.

The Department of Homeland Security - the agency that helps ward off against cyber attacks - "must immediately help states and localities", Schumer wrote.

"Before Americans are hit with outages, disruptions, and attacks that could put lives and livelihoods at risk," he continued.

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With additional reporting by Nadine Yousif in Toronto.