Canvas Data Breach Impacting Penn State, Final Grades May Be Deferred

Penn State students and faculty are dealing with the fallout from a cybersecurity breach involving the Canvas learning platform.  Officials say the hacking group “ShinyHunters” claimed responsibility for breaching Instructure, the parent company of Canvas.  The breach reportedly exposed student names, ID numbers, and email addresses of an estimated 275 million users across nearly nine-thousand educational institutions worldwide.  The company says the platform remains unavailable at this time.  As a result of this breach, Penn State has had to cancel some final exams.  University officials say they have contacted faculty, and are working with them to determine what the next steps will be for final grading.   According to sources close to Penn State, the university might choose to defer final grades, or grade on what was  turned in and graded so far.