By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – A learning management system used by more than 9,000 schools across the country is back online after a nationwide data breach.
Read more Tucson Police investigating protest at law firm tied to Project Blue
The University of Arizona’s Global Campus was affected by the attack. The fully online school serves more than 23,000 students.
Students received a message on their screens on Thursday from a hacking group called ShinyHunters, threatening to steal their data again.
Master’s student Michelle Reynolds was trying to finish her share of a group project on Thursday when she came across the message.
“I was trying to go into the inbox to try and retrieve a message from my group member, and I got the message from, I think, they were calling themselves ‘ShinyHunters’,” Reynolds said.
ShinyHunters is a hacking group known for stealing and selling data. This week, the group breached Instructure, the parent company of a learning platform called Canvas. Thousands of students like Reynolds were unable to access their schoolwork.
“So I never got the chance to start the project, type it, I never even got a chance to communicate with the group member or anything,” Reynolds said.
Hackers threaten to release private information
Students received an alert from ShinyHunters, threatening to release private information unless a ransom payment was made. The group claims to have obtained 275 million records.
Paul Kealey, a University of Arizona professor of management information systems, said that would make it the largest data breach in the history of academia.
“They can be older records, they can be duplicate records, but still a substantial amount of data taken,” Kealey said.
Read more Tolleson parents accused of handcuffing, beating 9-year-old boy
The data includes names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages between students and faculty. Kealey said the information can be used to create phishing attacks.
“They have a conversation between a faculty and a student, right? They can take that conversation, design a phishing email from that that looks very legitimate because it’s an actual conversation they had,” Kealey said.
Kealey said universities’ privacy protections are not strong, which is why Canvas was targeted.
“And then the other reason is just the sheer scale of what they can do with very little,” Kealey said. “They can compromise it once and have access to 15,000 institutions.”
As of Friday afternoon, Instructure and UAGC said their system is fully operational again. They have not shared with students what private information was stolen.
The Tucson Unified School District was also part of the cyberattack. A spokesperson for TUSD said Canvas is still not available for students or teachers in the district; however, Instructure said no credentials or other personal data were compromised.
Are you streaming 13 News?
Watch a free live stream of Tucson Now and 13 News at TucsonNow.Live.
Be sure to download the free Tucson Now app, which you can find on Apple and Google.
If you are using a desktop computer, you can use your mobile device to scan the QR code below.
Read more What happens when a Waymo is at fault in a crash?
You can submit your breaking news or weather images here.