Canvas learning platform data breach – There may be users at Aalto

The Canvas learning platform has been the target of a criminal cyberattack. The personal data of individuals who have used Canvas may have been affected.

Aalto University does not have a company licence for Canvas, and the platform is not among the tools procured by the university. In line with the university’s Code of Conduct, university personnel must, for information security reasons, use tools that are acquired and supported by the university. However, there may still be some individual users of Canvas among the university’s students and personnel.

Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE) uses Canvas with a company license for programme delivery and communications. Read here Aalto EE news. Aalto EE is a subsidiary of Aalto University. 

If, as a university (not Aalto EE) employee or student, you have used the Canvas service, do the following:

1. Notify security@aalto.fi if you have logged in to the Canvas service with your aalto.fi email address.
2. As a precaution, you can change your Aalto user account password
3. From now on, use only services and platforms supported at Aalto University.
    

According to information published by Instructure, the company behind the Canvas service, the compromised data include names, email addresses, register ID in Canvas, and the contents of private messages sent via Canvas’s inbox. There is no indication that passwords, financial information, dates of birth or government identification numbers were involved, the company says.

Aalto University’s contact person for any media inquiries is Petri Suomala, Vice President for Education, vp-education@aalto.fi.

More information

• Students, you can find a service request form on the MyCourses footer.
• Teachers, use the request form for teaching support
• Instructions: Digital teaching tools 
• Use only approved collaboration tools at work
• Aalto EE news about the data breach