Trinity Not Directly Affected by Canvas Security Issue

The following email was sent on May 8 to all students, faculty, and staff, about the security breach of Canvas, a web-based "learning management system" that Trinity uses to facilitate teaching. 

Dear Campus Community,

We wanted to update you on the situation with Canvas and provide some clarity about yesterday’s incident. The most important things to know are:

• Trinity University was not included on the list of universities directly affected by the hack, which included a ransom scheme and a website “takeover.” 

• Canvas informed Trinity that, to the best of its knowledge, there was no confirmed breach of Trinity’s website or other digital platforms.

• Canvas is currently accessible and all security measures, including DUO, a multi-factor authentication system, are active for all Trinity users.

• Safeguarding the Trinity community’s personally identifiable information is of the utmost importance. 

Here’s what happened:

Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, took down the Canvas system for about eight hours starting yesterday afternoon after detecting a hack, disrupting the sharing of academic information at Trinity and universities across the country. The lack of access to Canvas at Trinity was due to the Instructure shutdown, not to an external attack. During this shutdown, Instructure identified the probable path hackers took and corrected the situation. 

Again, there is no indication at this point that any Trinity data was downloaded. Trinity provides very limited information to Canvas. It does not include birthdates, Social Security numbers, other government identification, or financial information. 

As a normal part of Trinity’s online security protocol, users are required to go through multi-factor authentication. This requires users to log in with a security code from DUO, which further identifies users and the websites users are accessing. This process provides Trinity a strong layer of protection from intrusions.

Going forward:

Although we do not anticipate another Canvas shutdown, ITS recommends downloading copies of final exams and gradebooks to avoid any further interruptions. Click on the following links for instructions on downloading exams and exporting entire course gradebooks.

Trinity University takes your internet safety and data security extremely seriously. We will continue to closely monitor the Canvas situation and any other potential issues and communicate with the campus as quickly as possible. 

Please contact Information Technology if you have any questions or concerns about this or other issues at @email or 210-999-7409. 

Sincerely,

Megan Mustain, Ph.D.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Mark Detterick

Vice President for Finance and Administration