Urgent message for all students regarding CANVAS
In our message yesterday (7 May) we advised you that our Virtual Learning Environment, Canvas, had been affected by a global cybersecurity incident.
Overnight, the company operating Canvas, have temporarily removed worldwide access to the platform to prevent any further misuse of the system – including spam messages that you may have seen if you were trying to access Canvas overnight.
We are in contact with the providers of Canvas to understand the extent of the problem and how quickly this may be resolved - in the meantime we understand that this is a busy time for students with assessments, exams and due deadlines and we will ensure that no students are disadvantaged by this current situation.
We do not have all the details this morning and we are working through them as quickly as we can -
- If you have a submission deadline today - it will be extended until Wednesday 13 May at 5 p.m. BST
- If you were unable to make a submission last night your deadline will be extended until Wednesday 13 May at 5 p.m. BST
- All other pending deadlines will be reviewed and extended into next week, with further information to follow.
- Please note that these deadlines may be subject to change, we are trying to provide as much certainty as we can in a dynamic situation.
- You should ignore any other messages or information sources regarding the problem with Canvas - we will provide updates as soon as possible.
We are really sorry about these issues, which are due to circumstances outside of our control. Please be assured that we are working to ensure that students are not unfairly affected; we are absolutely on your side, and we will provide a further update later today. There is plenty of help and support available at our Time to Talk webpages and on our UoBe Ready pages.
Students in Dubai will receive direct communications from the Dubai Campus team as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
What you can do to be extra vigilant
After any widely reported security incident, there is an increased risk of phishing attempts. Phishing is when people attempt to deceive you into parting with financial or sensitive personal information, often pretending to be a person or organisation that you trust. Fraudsters may do this through phone calls, emails, texts, WhatsApp, or social media. Therefore, please be extra alert for:
- unexpected messages that may or may not reference Canvas
- unsolicited emails
- requests for account verification, login details, or personal information.