It is very unpleasant to know that what is said in confidence between students and teachers can be spread, says Henrik Dahlberg, press manager at Chalmers.
The company Instructure, which supplies the learning platform Canvas, has been affected. The Swedish Data Protection Authority (IMY) had received around 50 reports by Friday afternoon. Several countries, such as the US and Denmark, have also been affected.
Leaked information included names, email addresses, student IDs and messages between users, according to the authority.
However, there are currently no indications that passwords, social security numbers, financial information or similar have been affected. Messages can, for example, be linked to assignments, essays and similar, says Viktor Johnsson, lawyer at IMY.
The hackers threatened
Threats have been made – users at the universities of Uppsala and Copenhagen have received messages from the hacker group Shiny Hunters, who have threatened to leak data if an agreement is not reached with the universities or Instructure, reports Upsala Nya Tidning.
The university's learning platform Studium was shut down, but was back up at lunchtime on Friday.
It is up to each university to ensure that the handling of personal data is secure.
“The situation is difficult”
At Lund University, Canvas is down on Friday afternoon. As a result, students cannot submit assignments or access materials.
The service is available at Chalmers, where teachers and students are urged to be careful about how they express themselves in direct messages.
The press officer emphasizes that one should also be careful when downloading documents and be vigilant about emails that look suspicious.
Even though Swedish higher education institutions are coordinated, they are a minor player compared with all the education providers that the company has as customers, he emphasizes.
They are very secretive about their crisis management toward their customers, so the situation is difficult, says Henrik Dahlberg.
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