International cyber attack disrupts swath of universities and schools

A hacking group breached the academic software Canvas, used by thousands of schools and universities across the globe.

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

By late Thursday, the company Instructure, which owns Canvas, posted an update on its website saying that Canvas was "available for most users", but some universities were still reporting outages on Friday.

The cyber attacks targeted universities and schools across the globe, affecting an estimated 9,000 institutions.

Mississippi State University announced that it was postponing Friday's final exams to allow affected students to recover any lost work.