Hackers Bring Down Service Used by Colleges From Harvard to Oslo

Hackers briefly took down an online portal used by thousands of colleges around the world this month, disrupting services at institutions from Harvard to Princeton.

Instructure Inc., which runs the Canvas service used by students to take tests and get grades, said it was forced to suspend the portal after a May 1 infiltration by a “criminal threat actor.” The perpetrators exploited a vulnerability in a specific account for teachers, an Instructure spokesperson said in an emailed statement, gaining unauthorized access to some of its websites. The company, owned by KKR & Co., restored much of the service Thursday, though it’s suspended the teacher accounts for now.