By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board heard a report on the Canvas data breach at its meeting on Tuesday.
Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, notified the district on Friday that the district's learning management system might have been impacted by a widespread data breach affecting thousands of educational institutions, said Chris Hipp, assistant superintendent for business for USD 489.
Canvas is used to manage Hays USD 489 student data for students in sixth through 12th grades.
Instructure has indicated there is currently no evidence that passwords, dates of birth, social security numbers or financial information were involved in the incident, Hipp said.
He said it is important to note USD 489 Canvas data does not include dates of birth, social security numbers or financial information.
Instructure’s investigation remains ongoing, and it is not yet clear what Canvas data may have been affected.
Hipp said the connection to Canvas was shutoff while the investigation continues.
He said the suspension of some of the data connections between Canvas and PowerSchool will result in additional manual entry work for teachers but will not stop grade calculations for any secondary students.
The system does hold student contact data, user names, email addresses and grade work.
In addition to the measures Instructure has taken to secure its platform, USD 489 has implemented additional precautionary steps to help safeguard our systems, Hipp said.
"We will continue to closely monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available. At this time, no specific action is required by USD 489 users," Hipp said.
"However, we encourage all members of the community to remain vigilant and exercise caution with unexpected or suspicious emails or phishing attempts."
Hipp added, "We will continue to work through our cyber carrier and legal counsel to make sure any notifications [are made], and everything is investigated all the way through."