Dear students, faculty and staff, 

Technology Solutions and university leadership are aware that the Canvas learning management system is currently unavailable due to a national security incident affecting all customers of Instructure, the parent company of Canvas. No other university systems are impacted by this incident. 

We are awaiting information from Instructure as to when access to Canvas will be restored. Until the vendor can solve this problem, course materials will be unavailable.  

Members of university leadership are discussing next steps, with sensitivity to the impacts on students and instructors during the final exam period. 

What is happening? 

At Instructure, a criminal threat actor obtained data associated with certain Canvas accounts, affecting multiple institutions nationwide. This incident originates from Instructure and is not specific to UIC.  

Instructure has taken measures to protect the platform and is working with a third-party forensics firm on further investigation. 

Technology Solutions is working closely with Instructure and will continue to evaluate the situation as more information becomes available. 

What data is involved? 

Instructure’s preliminary findings stated that the information involved consists of certain user data — including names, email addresses, student ID numbers and messages among users. The company stated that it has found no evidence that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information were involved.  

Instructure is still investigating and has not shared specific information with us regarding UIC data included in the breach. However, Canvas does not contain dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information. 

What do I need to do? 

No proactive action is required from students, faculty or staff at this time. However, if you receive an email or any other communications purporting to be from Canvas or Instructure, we ask that you do not click on any links or respond to the email, and instead forward it to security@uic.edu. 

If you notice that the Canvas system becomes available, please do not log in or engage in the platform until you receive an official campus communication stating that the platform is safe to use. 

Where can I learn more? 

Technology Solutions leadership is working to identify next steps related to course materials, final exam activities and grading processes. We will be updating this help article with details as we have them: Canvas Service Disruption - Current Guidance. 

For the latest official information from Instructure, visit status.instructure.com. 

Further updates will be provided at status.uic.edu as they become available, and major updates will be shared as an official campus communication. 

Sincerely,

Matt Riley
Chief Information Officer
Technology Solutions 

Shefali Mookencherry 
Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer 
Technology Solutions