7:50 a.m. Tuesday, May 12: To faculty, staff and students

JMU's instance of Canvas continues to remain available.

Refer to Instructure's Security Incident Update & FAQs page for details regarding the incident and additional information.

11:55 a.m. Friday, May 8: To faculty, staff and students

JMU Information Technology has confirmed that Canvas is operational and available to faculty, staff and students.

As a precaution following any third-party platform disruption, we encourage users to remain vigilant regarding phishing attempts, and avoid clicking unknown links or unrecognized file downloads from Canvas.  

The official make-up day for exams missed Friday morning will be Wed., May 13. Students with a rescheduled exam should communicate directly with their instructional faculty member with individual questions or confirmation on the rescheduled exam time.  

We recognize this disruption came at a critical time, and we appreciate the patience and understanding of our JMU campus community during Canvas’ global outage.  

JMU IT will continue to monitor the Canvas performance to ensure a stable experience for our campus. For additional details on this security incident, Instructure has published a Security Incident Update & FAQs page with details about what happened and the current status.

9:45 a.m. Friday, May 8: To instructional faculty and staff

The Canvas outage was problematic, but fortunately fairly short-lived. Of course, the outage came at the most impactful time of the semester. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we respond to this unexpected disruption.

We apologize for the last-minute notice yesterday of rescheduling two exam blocks this morning. Canvas went down for us late Thursday afternoon. Given that we did not know when service would be restored and when faculty and students could access course materials on Canvas, we needed a short-term response while creating some time for us to react. With Canvas up and running, no additional changes are anticipated. We are continuing to monitor the situation and Canvas closely.

ODS exams scheduled for this afternoon will proceed as scheduled.

If you had a Friday morning exam scheduled, you may offer students other times to take the exam. However, if they request the official makeup rescheduled time on Wed., May 13, they must be able to take the exam then.

If you are considering a time other than the official make-up date to administer your exam, please keep in mind that students may have other exams scheduled that conflict with your preferred time and ensure all accommodations are met. Please communicate with your students about timing and work through those conflicts. This situation has been stressful for our students as well as us, and rescheduling exams will cause travel and other challenges. Thanks in advance for your flexibility in light of this unique circumstance. 

6:53 p.m. Thursday, May 7 – To faculty, staff and students  

Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, had notified JMU that the university was impacted by a widespread data breach affecting thousands of institutions.

JMU IT is advising all students, faculty and staff to not click on any links or open unsolicited messages or emails that appear related to Instructure or Canvas.  As a result of the incident, Canvas is currently inaccessible as Instructure takes measures to remediate the situation.

Instructure has informed JMU and other impacted universities that it has taken steps to secure the platform, including remediating the underlying vulnerability. Additionally, Instructure has engaged a third-party forensics firm for an investigation and notified law enforcement authorities. 

We are working with Instructure to learn more about the impact of the incident and will provide updates when additional information is available.

6:38 p.m. Thursday, May 7: To faculty, staff and students

Canvas sites at universities worldwide, including JMU, are down in response to a security breach.

We do not know the duration of this outage, but we are notifying you now so you can begin to plan for the possibility of upcoming exams and grading without access to Canvas.

Exams scheduled for Friday, May 8 at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. will be delayed until Wednesday, May 13. The revised exam schedule is available on the Registrar’s website. Students will be notified of this change shortly, and we will follow up Friday morning with alternative options. A campus-wide message will go out soon.

Please be in contact with your students to keep them apprised of any needed changes to exams or other end of semester assessments.  You can access your students’ email in MyMadison.

We will keep you updated as soon as we have any additional information.

6:37 p.m. Thursday, May 7: To students

Canvas sites at universities worldwide, including JMU, are down in response to a security breach.

Exams scheduled for Friday, May 8 at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. will be delayed until Wednesday, May 13. The revised exam schedule is available on the Registrar’s website. A campus-wide message will go out soon.

Your faculty are aware of this issue; please reach out to your instructors with individual questions.

We will continue to update you as we have more information.

For additional details on this security incident, please see:

• Instructure Security Incident FAQ: https://www.instructure.com/incident_update