University of Tennessee Moves Exams to Saturday after Canvas Cyberattack

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Story courtesy of WVLT) – The University of Tennessee will test students Saturday after a massive security breach involving Instructure, the company behind the widely used Canvas learning software.

The breach caused a nationwide outage, which was largely fixed by Friday morning. However, the university has decided to move Friday’s tests to Saturday. A schedule is below.

“Students who are unable to take finals tomorrow because of religious observances or extenuating circumstances should contact their instructors to make other arrangements,“ a university announcement said. ”We ask that instructors be as flexible and accommodating as possible to students in considering requests for make-up arrangements.“

The announcement also came with a warning about the possibility of future problems with Canvas.

“We advise students and faculty to download any needed course materials from Canvas to ensure they have a backup copy in case the platform goes offline again,” the university said. “Instructors whose exams are in Canvas should prepare alternatives that could be offered outside the platform. Instructors should also download student contact information so that they can email students without relying on Canvas messaging.”

The Canvas outage stemmed from a security attack that spanned the nation by a group called “Shinyhunters.” The breach came at the busiest time of the year for academic institutions.