hacking – Wolfnewss

ransomware gangs and data extortion attacks. But never before, perhaps, has a cyberattack against a single software platform so thoroughly disrupted the daily operations of thousands of schools across the United States.

The widely used digital learning platform Canvas was put into “maintenance mode” on Thursday after its maker, the education tech giant Instructure, suffered a data breach and faced an extortion attempt by attackers using the recognizable moniker “ShinyHunters.” Though the hackers have been advertising the breach and attempting to extract a ransom payment from Instructure since May 1, the situation took on additional immediacy for regular people across the US and beyond on Thursday because the Canvas downtime caused chaos at schools, including those in the midst of finals and end-of-year assignments.

Universities like Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, and Georgetown sent alerts to students about the situation in recent days; other institutions, including school districts in at least a dozen states, also appear to have been affected. In a list published by the hackers behind the attack on their ransom-focused dark web site, they claim the breach affected more than 8,800 schools. The exact scale and reach of the breach is currently unclear, though. And the fact that Canvas was down throughout Thursday afternoon and evening further complicated the picture.

In a running incident update log that began on May 1, Steve Proud, Instructure’s chief information security officer, said that the company had “recently experienced a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor.” He added on May 2 that “the information involved” for “users at affected institutions” included names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages exchanged by users on the platform.

The situation was ultimately marked as “Resolved” on Wednesday, with Proud writing that “Canvas is fully operational, and we are not seeing any ongoing unauthorized activity.” At midday on Thursday, though, the Instructure status page registered an “issue” where “some users are having difficulties logging into Student ePortfolios.” Within a few hours, the company had added another status update: “Instructure has placed Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test in maintenance mode.” Late Thursday evening, the company said that Canvas was available again “for most users.”

TechCrunch reported on Thursday that the hackers launched a secondary wave of attacks, defacing some schools’ Canvas portals by injecting an HTML file to display their own message on the schools’ Canvas login pages. According to The Harvard Crimson, attackers modified the Harvard Canvas login page to show a message that included a list of schools that the hackers claim were impacted by the breach.

The message from attackers “urged schools included on the affected list to consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact the group privately to negotiate a settlement before the end of the day on May 12—or else risk their data being leaked,” The Crimson reported. “It is unclear what information tied to Harvard affiliates was included in the alleged breach.”

Instructure did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday’s outages and how they fit into the bigger picture of the breach. But the situation is significant given that a massive trove of student information has potentially been exposed, and the visibility of the incident across the country makes it a key example of a longstanding, yet endlessly escalating problem of data extortion and ransomware attacks.

The ShinyHunters name is associated with massive data dumps and has been linked to the infamous hacker collective known as the Com. But as the constellation of actors has shifted over the years, numerous attackers have taken up the most prominent Com-related monikers. A number of recent attacks have invoked other names, such as Lapsus$, with little or no connection to the original group that operated under the name.

#Canvas #Hack #Kind #Ransomware #Debacleransomware,cybersecurity,malware,hacks,hacking,security,vulnerabilities">

The Canvas Hack Is a New Kind of Ransomware DebacleHigher education has long been a target of ransomware gangs and data extortion attacks. But never before, perhaps, has a cyberattack against a single software platform so thoroughly disrupted the daily operations of thousands of schools across the United States.The widely used digital learning platform Canvas was put into “maintenance mode” on Thursday after its maker, the education tech giant Instructure, suffered a data breach and faced an extortion attempt by attackers using the recognizable moniker “ShinyHunters.” Though the hackers have been advertising the breach and attempting to extract a ransom payment from Instructure since May 1, the situation took on additional immediacy for regular people across the US and beyond on Thursday because the Canvas downtime caused chaos at schools, including those in the midst of finals and end-of-year assignments.Universities like Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, and Georgetown sent alerts to students about the situation in recent days; other institutions, including school districts in at least a dozen states, also appear to have been affected. In a list published by the hackers behind the attack on their ransom-focused dark web site, they claim the breach affected more than 8,800 schools. The exact scale and reach of the breach is currently unclear, though. And the fact that Canvas was down throughout Thursday afternoon and evening further complicated the picture.In a running incident update log that began on May 1, Steve Proud, Instructure’s chief information security officer, said that the company had “recently experienced a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor.” He added on May 2 that “the information involved” for “users at affected institutions” included names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages exchanged by users on the platform.The situation was ultimately marked as “Resolved” on Wednesday, with Proud writing that “Canvas is fully operational, and we are not seeing any ongoing unauthorized activity.” At midday on Thursday, though, the Instructure status page registered an “issue” where “some users are having difficulties logging into Student ePortfolios.” Within a few hours, the company had added another status update: “Instructure has placed Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test in maintenance mode.” Late Thursday evening, the company said that Canvas was available again “for most users.”TechCrunch reported on Thursday that the hackers launched a secondary wave of attacks, defacing some schools’ Canvas portals by injecting an HTML file to display their own message on the schools’ Canvas login pages. According to The Harvard Crimson, attackers modified the Harvard Canvas login page to show a message that included a list of schools that the hackers claim were impacted by the breach.The message from attackers “urged schools included on the affected list to consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact the group privately to negotiate a settlement before the end of the day on May 12—or else risk their data being leaked,” The Crimson reported. “It is unclear what information tied to Harvard affiliates was included in the alleged breach.”Instructure did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday’s outages and how they fit into the bigger picture of the breach. But the situation is significant given that a massive trove of student information has potentially been exposed, and the visibility of the incident across the country makes it a key example of a longstanding, yet endlessly escalating problem of data extortion and ransomware attacks.The ShinyHunters name is associated with massive data dumps and has been linked to the infamous hacker collective known as the Com. But as the constellation of actors has shifted over the years, numerous attackers have taken up the most prominent Com-related monikers. A number of recent attacks have invoked other names, such as Lapsus$, with little or no connection to the original group that operated under the name.#Canvas #Hack #Kind #Ransomware #Debacleransomware,cybersecurity,malware,hacks,hacking,security,vulnerabilities

May 8, 2026

Tech-news

ransomware gangs and data extortion attacks. But never before, perhaps, has a cyberattack against a single software platform so thoroughly disrupted the daily operations of thousands of schools across the United States.
The widely used digital learning platform Canvas was put into “maintenance mode” on Thursday after its maker, the education tech giant Instructure, suffered a data breach and faced an extortion attempt by attackers using the recognizable moniker “ShinyHunters.” Though the hackers have been advertising the breach and attempting to extract a ransom payment from Instructure since May 1, the situation took on additional immediacy for regular people across the US and beyond on Thursday because the Canvas downtime caused chaos at schools, including those in the midst of finals and end-of-year assignments.
Universities like Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, and Georgetown sent alerts to students about the situation in recent days; other institutions, including school districts in at least a dozen states, also appear to have been affected. In a list published by the hackers behind the attack on their ransom-focused dark web site, they claim the breach affected more than 8,800 schools. The exact scale and reach of the breach is currently unclear, though. And the fact that Canvas was down throughout Thursday afternoon and evening further complicated the picture.
In a running incident update log that began on May 1, Steve Proud, Instructure’s chief information security officer, said that the company had “recently experienced a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor.” He added on May 2 that “the information involved” for “users at affected institutions” included names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and messages exchanged by users on the platform.
The situation was ultimately marked as “Resolved” on Wednesday, with Proud writing that “Canvas is fully operational, and we are not seeing any ongoing unauthorized activity.” At midday on Thursday, though, the Instructure status page registered an “issue” where “some users are having difficulties logging into Student ePortfolios.” Within a few hours, the company had added another status update: “Instructure has placed Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test in maintenance mode.” Late Thursday evening, the company said that Canvas was available again “for most users.”
TechCrunch reported on Thursday that the hackers launched a secondary wave of attacks, defacing some schools’ Canvas portals by injecting an HTML file to display their own message on the schools’ Canvas login pages. According to The Harvard Crimson, attackers modified the Harvard Canvas login page to show a message that included a list of schools that the hackers claim were impacted by the breach.
The message from attackers “urged schools included on the affected list to consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact the group privately to negotiate a settlement before the end of the day on May 12—or else risk their data being leaked,” The Crimson reported. “It is unclear what information tied to Harvard affiliates was included in the alleged breach.”
Instructure did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday’s outages and how they fit into the bigger picture of the breach. But the situation is significant given that a massive trove of student information has potentially been exposed, and the visibility of the incident across the country makes it a key example of a longstanding, yet endlessly escalating problem of data extortion and ransomware attacks.
The ShinyHunters name is associated with massive data dumps and has been linked to the infamous hacker collective known as the Com. But as the constellation of actors has shifted over the years, numerous attackers have taken up the most prominent Com-related monikers. A number of recent attacks have invoked other names, such as Lapsus$, with little or no connection to the original group that operated under the name.

#Canvas #Hack #Kind #Ransomware #Debacleransomware,cybersecurity,malware,hacks,hacking,security,vulnerabilities">The Canvas Hack Is a New Kind of Ransomware Debacle

Higher education has long been a target of ransomware gangs and data extortion attacks. But never before, perhaps, has a cyberattack against a single software platform so thoroughly disrupted the daily operations of thousands of schools across the United States.

#Canvas #Hack #Kind #Ransomware #Debacleransomware,cybersecurity,malware,hacks,hacking,security,vulnerabilities

Higher education has long been a target of ransomware gangs and data extortion attacks. But…

#Hottest #AntiAI #Gadget #Cyberdeckcomputer,diy,hacking,tiktok,trends,social media">

The Hottest Anti-AI Gadget Is a CyberdeckIn the years following the book’s release, a bro-y community of hobbyists has dabbled with their own wires and screens to create homebrew devices, frequently for hacking purposes or on-the-go coding. Historically, decks have resembled a heavy-duty laptop, featuring a screen and small keyboard, often sleek, utilitarian, and housed in a Pelican briefcase to survive imagined, apocalyptic scenarios. One niche ham radio YouTuber, over a year ago, titled his tutorial video “DIY Doomsday Cyberdeck EMAIL/TEXT without INTERNET” and, of course, included the “prepper” hashtag.What sets Tan’s cyberdeck apart is its aesthetic. Inside her refurbished clamshell purse, hardware-wise, is a Raspberry Pi single-board computer with a small keyboard and screen. All fairly standard stuff—the cyberdeck’s feminine shell and crafty details are what subverts expectations. “I’ve not seen anyone do a hyper-femme one before,” she says. Tan felt an appreciation for the tactical aesthetic previously established by the cyberdeck community, but she wanted to craft a version that felt more authentic to her style. “I’ve always been very anti-minimalist,” she says. “In my life, I want color, and I want everything that I own to convey that it’s me.”To make her mermaid cyberdeck less reliant on internet access, she has transferred heaps of files from her PC, uploading songs, books, maps, Wikipedia articles, and even some photos of her cats directly onto the device. When the custom mouse is connected, she can even run Doom on it.In addition to her mermaid-inspired cyberdeck, Tan also shared the construction of a deck featuring solar panels on TikTok.
Courtesy of Annike TanTan says the audience for her widely viewed TikToks are around three-fourths women. “A lot of people had the response, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you could make a computer like this. I thought it had to be a gray box, like every other Mac or Dell or whatever,’” says Ling Lu, a 28-year-old product designer and illustrator who lives in New York City. She was inspired by Tan’s videos to try to make her own whimsical gadget, the “cyberduck” audio journal, an avian-shaped recording device for personal use.#Hottest #AntiAI #Gadget #Cyberdeckcomputer,diy,hacking,tiktok,trends,social media

April 28, 2026

Tech-news

In the years following the book’s release, a bro-y community of hobbyists has dabbled with their own wires and screens to create homebrew devices, frequently for hacking purposes or on-the-go coding. Historically, decks have resembled a heavy-duty laptop, featuring a screen and small keyboard, often sleek, utilitarian, and housed in a Pelican briefcase to survive imagined, apocalyptic scenarios. One niche ham radio YouTuber, over a year ago, titled his tutorial video “DIY Doomsday Cyberdeck EMAIL/TEXT without INTERNET” and, of course, included the “prepper” hashtag.
What sets Tan’s cyberdeck apart is its aesthetic. Inside her refurbished clamshell purse, hardware-wise, is a Raspberry Pi single-board computer with a small keyboard and screen. All fairly standard stuff—the cyberdeck’s feminine shell and crafty details are what subverts expectations. “I’ve not seen anyone do a hyper-femme one before,” she says. Tan felt an appreciation for the tactical aesthetic previously established by the cyberdeck community, but she wanted to craft a version that felt more authentic to her style. “I’ve always been very anti-minimalist,” she says. “In my life, I want color, and I want everything that I own to convey that it’s me.”
To make her mermaid cyberdeck less reliant on internet access, she has transferred heaps of files from her PC, uploading songs, books, maps, Wikipedia articles, and even some photos of her cats directly onto the device. When the custom mouse is connected, she can even run Doom on it.
In addition to her mermaid-inspired cyberdeck, Tan also shared the construction of a deck featuring solar panels on TikTok.
Courtesy of Annike Tan
Tan says the audience for her widely viewed TikToks are around three-fourths women. “A lot of people had the response, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you could make a computer like this. I thought it had to be a gray box, like every other Mac or Dell or whatever,’” says Ling Lu, a 28-year-old product designer and illustrator who lives in New York City. She was inspired by Tan’s videos to try to make her own whimsical gadget, the “cyberduck” audio journal, an avian-shaped recording device for personal use.

#Hottest #AntiAI #Gadget #Cyberdeckcomputer,diy,hacking,tiktok,trends,social media">The Hottest Anti-AI Gadget Is a Cyberdeck

In the years following the book’s release, a bro-y community of hobbyists has dabbled with their own wires and screens to create homebrew devices, frequently for hacking purposes or on-the-go coding. Historically, decks have resembled a heavy-duty laptop, featuring a screen and small keyboard, often sleek, utilitarian, and housed in a Pelican briefcase to survive imagined, apocalyptic scenarios. One niche ham radio YouTuber, over a year ago, titled his tutorial video “DIY Doomsday Cyberdeck EMAIL/TEXT without INTERNET” and, of course, included the “prepper” hashtag.

What sets Tan’s cyberdeck apart is its aesthetic. Inside her refurbished clamshell purse, hardware-wise, is a Raspberry Pi single-board computer with a small keyboard and screen. All fairly standard stuff—the cyberdeck’s feminine shell and crafty details are what subverts expectations. “I’ve not seen anyone do a hyper-femme one before,” she says. Tan felt an appreciation for the tactical aesthetic previously established by the cyberdeck community, but she wanted to craft a version that felt more authentic to her style. “I’ve always been very anti-minimalist,” she says. “In my life, I want color, and I want everything that I own to convey that it’s me.”

To make her mermaid cyberdeck less reliant on internet access, she has transferred heaps of files from her PC, uploading songs, books, maps, Wikipedia articles, and even some photos of her cats directly onto the device. When the custom mouse is connected, she can even run Doom on it.

Tan says the audience for her widely viewed TikToks are around three-fourths women. “A lot of people had the response, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you could make a computer like this. I thought it had to be a gray box, like every other Mac or Dell or whatever,’” says Ling Lu, a 28-year-old product designer and illustrator who lives in New York City. She was inspired by Tan’s videos to try to make her own whimsical gadget, the “cyberduck” audio journal, an avian-shaped recording device for personal use.

#Hottest #AntiAI #Gadget #Cyberdeckcomputer,diy,hacking,tiktok,trends,social media

In the years following the book's release, a bro-y community of hobbyists has dabbled with…

Thousands of men are members of Telegram groups and channels that advertise and sell hacking and surveillance services that can be used to harass friends, wives and girlfriends, and former partners, new research has uncovered. The findings, from a European nonprofit group, also say that the communities are involved in extensive trading, selling, and promotion of a huge variety of abusive content, including nonconsensual intimate images of women, so-called nudifying services, plus folders of images that sellers claim include child sexual abuse material and depictions of incest and rape.

Over six weeks earlier this year, researchers at the algorithmic auditing group AI Forensics analyzed nearly 2.8 million messages sent across 16 Italian and Spanish Telegram communities that are regularly posting abusive content targeting women and girls. More than 24,000 members of the Telegram groups and channels took part in posting 82,723 images, videos, and audio files over the course of the study, the analysis says. Many posts target celebrities and influencers, but men in the groups also frequently victimize women they know.

“We tend to forget that most victims are ordinary women who sometimes don’t even know that their pictures are shared or manipulated in these types of channels,” says Silvia Semenzin, a researcher at AI Forensics who previously exposed Italian Telegram channels engaging in similar behavior as far back as 2019. “The majority of this violence is directed towards people who the perpetrators know,” she says, suggesting that Telegram, which has over 1 billion monthly active users, according to company founder Pavel Durov, should be subject to stricter regulation and classed as a “very large online platform” under Europe’s online safety rules.

The findings come as Durov is fighting back against Russia’s efforts to block the messaging app in that country, which has long positioned itself as a messaging app that allows free speech but has simultaneously been used by some to share terrorist, sexual abuse, and cybercrime materials. Durov is under criminal investigation in France relating to alleged criminal activity taking place on Telegram, although he has consistently denied the allegations.

A Telegram spokesperson tells WIRED that the company removes “millions” of pieces of content per day using “custom AI tools” and has policies in Europe that do not allow the promotion of violence, illegal sexual content including nonconsensual imagery, and other content such as doxing and selling illegal goods and services.

Among the extensive types of abusive content and services observed by the AI Forensics researchers were frequent references to the access, publishing, and doxing of women’s private information, sharing their Instagram or TikTok content, as well as references to spying or hacking. “Victims are often named, tagged, and locatable via shared profile links,” the group’s report says.

One translated post on Telegram titled “Professional hacking on commission” claimed to be able to give customers “access to phone gallery and extraction of photos and videos,” as well as “anonymous social media hacking.” Another message says: “I hack and recover any type of social media service. I can spy on your partner’s account. Send me a private message.”

Across the dataset there were more than 18,000 references to spying or spy content. One post reads: “Hi, do you have the desire to spy on a girl’s gallery? We sell a bot that does it for info DM.” Meanwhile, users were observed asking if people could find phone numbers connected to Instagram accounts and other requests, “who exchanges spy photos and videos?”

#Men #Buying #Hacking #Tools #Wives #Friendscrime,privacy,security,cybersecurity,hacking,surveillance,telegram">

April 8, 2026

Tech-news

Thousands of men are members of Telegram groups and channels that advertise and sell hacking and surveillance services that can be used to harass friends, wives and girlfriends, and former partners, new research has uncovered. The findings, from a European nonprofit group, also say that the communities are involved in extensive trading, selling, and promotion of a huge variety of abusive content, including nonconsensual intimate images of women, so-called nudifying services, plus folders of images that sellers claim include child sexual abuse material and depictions of incest and rape.
Over six weeks earlier this year, researchers at the algorithmic auditing group AI Forensics analyzed nearly 2.8 million messages sent across 16 Italian and Spanish Telegram communities that are regularly posting abusive content targeting women and girls. More than 24,000 members of the Telegram groups and channels took part in posting 82,723 images, videos, and audio files over the course of the study, the analysis says. Many posts target celebrities and influencers, but men in the groups also frequently victimize women they know.
“We tend to forget that most victims are ordinary women who sometimes don’t even know that their pictures are shared or manipulated in these types of channels,” says Silvia Semenzin, a researcher at AI Forensics who previously exposed Italian Telegram channels engaging in similar behavior as far back as 2019. “The majority of this violence is directed towards people who the perpetrators know,” she says, suggesting that Telegram, which has over 1 billion monthly active users, according to company founder Pavel Durov, should be subject to stricter regulation and classed as a “very large online platform” under Europe’s online safety rules.
The findings come as Durov is fighting back against Russia’s efforts to block the messaging app in that country, which has long positioned itself as a messaging app that allows free speech but has simultaneously been used by some to share terrorist, sexual abuse, and cybercrime materials. Durov is under criminal investigation in France relating to alleged criminal activity taking place on Telegram, although he has consistently denied the allegations.
A Telegram spokesperson tells WIRED that the company removes “millions” of pieces of content per day using “custom AI tools” and has policies in Europe that do not allow the promotion of violence, illegal sexual content including nonconsensual imagery, and other content such as doxing and selling illegal goods and services.
Among the extensive types of abusive content and services observed by the AI Forensics researchers were frequent references to the access, publishing, and doxing of women’s private information, sharing their Instagram or TikTok content, as well as references to spying or hacking. “Victims are often named, tagged, and locatable via shared profile links,” the group’s report says.
One translated post on Telegram titled “Professional hacking on commission” claimed to be able to give customers “access to phone gallery and extraction of photos and videos,” as well as “anonymous social media hacking.” Another message says: “I hack and recover any type of social media service. I can spy on your partner’s account. Send me a private message.”
Across the dataset there were more than 18,000 references to spying or spy content. One post reads: “Hi, do you have the desire to spy on a girl’s gallery? We sell a bot that does it for info DM.” Meanwhile, users were observed asking if people could find phone numbers connected to Instagram accounts and other requests, “who exchanges spy photos and videos?”

#Men #Buying #Hacking #Tools #Wives #Friendscrime,privacy,security,cybersecurity,hacking,surveillance,telegram">Men Are Buying Hacking Tools to Use Against Their Wives and Friends