This post was updated May 10 at 8:23 p.m.
UCLA restored access to Bruin Learn on Saturday evening, two days after a cyberattack took down the learning platform.
ShinyHunters, a criminal extortion group, breached Canvas, which hosts Bruin Learn, Thursday afternoon. It threatened in a message posted to the website that it would release universities’ data if Canvas’ parent company, Instructure, did not negotiate a settlement.
[Related: Cyberattack on Bruin Learn stops students from studying, working on assignments]
UCLA blocked local access to Bruin Learn – which students use to access their grades and assignments – Thursday as a precaution, said Erin Sanders O’Leary, the vice provost for teaching and learning, and Lucy Avetisyan, the associate vice chancellor and chief information officer, in a campuswide email.
[Related: Cyberattack shuts down Bruin Learn, targets thousands of schools]
Instructure has rectified the cybersecurity incident, O’Leary and Avetisyan said in a Sunday email.
“In coordination with the UC Office of the President, we have determined, based on the latest available information, that Instructure’s system is ready for campus use,” they said in the email.
Cadence Esterling, a first-year bioengineering student, said she had to make do with class materials she had already downloaded when Canvas was not available. She added that her professors were mostly accommodating about finding alternative ways for students to submit their assignments.
Esterling said she was grateful Canvas went down in the middle of UCLA’s quarter, not during finals week – as it did at some universities on the semester system.
Avrin Pasebani, a graduate student in urban planning, said he believes the shutdown was particularly problematic because of UCLA’s dependence on Canvas.
“Maybe it’s on myself to save, keep and download these documents,” he said. “But also, it’s a trusted thing to go to.”
