MJ

Telstra is progressively restoring mobile services following the technical disruption experienced this morning. At this stage, and as advised by Telstra, there is no indication this disruption was caused by a cyber security incident. However, cybercriminals often seek to take advantage of the uncertainty around these types of disruptions by targeting potentially affected customers with scam emails, text messages, phone calls, or social media messages. I encourage every Australian to remain vigilant and be cautious of unsolicited contact. Do not click on unexpected links, open attachments, or provide personal information. If you’re unsure, hang up and call back. Always independently source contact details if you need to engage. As always, more information on how to protect yourself online is available at actnowstaysecure.gov.au

Today the National Office of Cyber Security facilitated a briefing across the education sector to enable Instructure to update all stakeholders on the cyber incident impacting its Canvas learning management system globally. Instructure advised it has undertaken a broad range of activities to ensure the Canvas environment is secure. The Canvas platform remains available for use; however, some Australian providers continue to use caution with regard to the security of the environment prior to re-enabling their Canvas instances. It will take time to understand the full impacts of any data exfiltrated as part of this incident. Consistent with other significant cyber incidents, there is an elevated risk of scams and phishing activity targeting students and staff, including attempts that appear to come from institutions, IT helpdesks or government. Students and staff should be cautious, scrutinise unexpected contacts, avoid clicking suspicious links, and never share credentials or personal information unless they have verified the request through trusted channels. Institutions should reinforce these messages, provide guidance on recognising scams, and encourage prompt reporting of suspicious activity to local IT/security teams. Education institutions, and their staff and students, should not engage with, respond to, or attempt to negotiate with any suspected threat actors or intermediaries in relation to this incident. Cybercriminals cannot be relied upon to act in good faith, and engagement can create additional risks, including further targeting and scams.

The Canvas learning management system impacted by a cyber incident is currently offline, affecting a large number of education providers globally, including in Australia. This will be disruptive for the delivery of education services in schools, universities and other educational institutions that use the Canvas platform today. If your institution uses Canvas, you should check with your provider or your jurisdiction’s Education Department on how this will affect delivery of services today. Despite the disruption caused by this incident, I understand affected education institutions remain open. Institutions will contact students and staff directly if they experience any interruptions to service delivery as a result of the incident. My team is working closely with state and territory governments and education peak bodies to collectively address the impacts arising from this incident. We are not aware of any personal identification documents or financial information being impacted by this incident. It will take some time to understand the full impacts of any compromised data. Anyone impacted by a cyber incident should maintain a heightened awareness of potential scam activity. Do not respond to unsolicited contact – criminals use information from data breaches to attempt extortion. Do not click on links in emails, text messages, or through other messaging platforms. As with any incident, Australians should not go searching for data on the dark web or engage with the threat actor – these actions only feed the business model of cybercriminals.

International education technology provider Instructure has reported a cyber security incident. Instructure provides a learning management system called Canvas to education institutions in more than 100 countries, including some here in Australia. A threat actor claims to have accessed a Canvas database holding personally identifiable information of students and staff from around the world. My team is coordinating efforts to respond and understand what Australian data may be impacted. We are in the early stages of assessing the impacts, and I will share further updates as we gain a better understanding of the incident. If you think you may be impacted by this breach, the best way you can protect yourself is to not respond to unsolicited contact. Criminals use personal information from data breaches to trick victims into revealing further information that can be used to access your accounts elsewhere, including with financial institutions.