SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Canvas, a learning management system used by universities worldwide, including CSU and San Diego State, is experiencing an outage Thursday, affecting millions of students.
San Diego State University sent out an alert saying "reports indicate that the outage is worldwide. SDSU is working closely with the CO and our third-party partner to understand more about the impact and an estimate for restoration."
Later in the afternoon, the university sent out a notification that students were being contacted directly with ransomware offers.
"If anyone receives information to this effect, do not respond and forward such messages to fraud@sdsu.edu. Do not attempt to open any links, do not download any attachments and do not reply to the message," the university said.
SDSU warned students, faculty, and staff not to attempt to access the Canvas portal.
The San Diego Community College District also said it was impacted by the Canvas outage. SDCCD Chancellor Gregory Smith shared the following message with students Thursday:
I understand the severity of impact this has given the timing and end of spring semester. I will be monitoring this in real time and communicating with CCCCO until it is resolved. Thank you for the flexibility and resilience you have shown throughout this week and managing the additional impacts of this latest development. Continuity of access for our students is our first priority and we are all essential in that effort.
As of 4 p.m., Instructure, the company that manages Canvas, said it was investigating the issue. According to the Instructure website, Canvas is used by tens of millions of people.
