Porto Business School has been informed of a global cybersecurity incident affecting the Canvas platform, used by educational institutions across multiple countries.
The incident involves Canvas data maintained by Instructure, the platform provider, and resulted from unauthorized access by a malicious actor.
PBS’s IT team is in direct contact with Instructure to assess the specific impact of this situation. According to the information currently available, the potentially affected data may include names, email addresses, student IDs, and messages exchanged through Canvas Inbox and Discussion tools from current and former users.
At this stage, there is no indication that any data has been publicly disclosed. Instructure has also stated that there is no indication that academic assessment data, passwords, or single sign-on authentication credentials were affected.
PBS is closely monitoring the situation and taking the necessary measures to protect its systems and users.
What does this mean for Canvas users?
At this time, no action is required from users.
As a precautionary measure, we recommend remaining alert to potential phishing attempts, namely:
- unexpected emails or messages requesting personal information;
- messages urging immediate action;
- unknown links or unexpected attachments.
If you receive a suspicious message, do not click on links or open attachments. Please report the situation through PBS’s usual IT support channels: helpdesk@pbs.up.pt.
Updates
PBS will continue to monitor the situation and share further information whenever relevant.
Official updates from Instructure are available on the company’s status page.