Box Elder School District has turned its grade book synchronization with Canvas back on following recent information received from Instructure. The district stated it will continue using the Canvas platform as the company adheres to School District student data privacy policy and federal and state requirements.
Reason for restoring synchronization
The decision follows a cybersecurity incident involving Instructure, the provider of the Canvas system. While the district previously turned off automated synchronization between Canvas and the official Gradebook as a precaution, the recent update from the vendor allowed for the reactivation of this feature.
Resolution of vendor security breach
Instructure reported that it reached an agreement with an unauthorized actor involved in the incident. According to Instructure, the data was returned and the company received digital confirmation of its destruction through shred logs. The company stated that no Instructure customers will be extorted as a result of this incident and there is no need for individual customers to engage with the unauthorized actor.
Details on secondary network access
A second access to Instructure networks occurred on the afternoon of May 7, which caused a service outage and placed the system into maintenance mode. However, an independent forensics partner found no evidence that additional data was exfiltrated or that account credentials were obtained within the Box Elder School District instance.
Potential impact on student data
During the height of the incident, the district confirmed that student ID numbers, institutional email addresses, names, and Canvas messages may have been affected. Instructure reported no evidence that financial information, passwords, dates of birth, or government identifiers were compromised.
Temporary communication protocols for users
As a precaution during the period of instability, the district instructed users not to use the Canvas inbox to communicate with teachers, requesting instead that district emails be used for communication.
