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May 8: Canvas Outage Updates

Canvas services have largely been restored following the nationwide outage affecting colleges across California and the country. The outage was connected to a cybersecurity incident involving Instructure, the company that provides the Canvas learning management system.

At this time, there is no indication that College of the Redwoods systems outside of Canvas have been impacted.

Although Canvas services have largely been restored, the broader investigation into the cybersecurity incident is ongoing. As a precaution, students, faculty, and staff should remain alert for suspicious emails, text messages, or links claiming to be from Canvas, Instructure, or College of the Redwoods. Do not click links in unsolicited messages asking you to verify your account information or reset passwords. Instead, access Canvas directly through the official College of the Redwoods website or your bookmarked login page.Guidance for Students, Faculty, and Staff:

  • College of the Redwoods remains open and operating normally.
  • Finals are continuing as scheduled.
  • Commencement and graduation-related events and activities remain scheduled to continue.
  • Faculty have been asked to take the outage into consideration when working with students on assignments, quizzes, exams, and coursework impacted by the disruption.

Important Security Reminder:

Please use caution when interacting with emails or Canvas messages from unfamiliar senders or accounts you do not recognize. Do not click on suspicious links, open unexpected attachments, download files, or provide login credentials in response to unsolicited messages. 

What to Watch For:

  • Unexpected emails or messages referencing your courses, instructors, grades, or Canvas activity.
  • Requests to reset passwords or verify account information through unfamiliar links.
  • Messages from unfamiliar individuals asking you to open attachments, share information, or click links.
May 8 Email to Students:

Subject: Canvas Outage Updates

(please note: due to heightened security concerns, we have not included links in this email)

Dear Students,

Canvas access has been restored following the nationwide outage and cybersecurity incident affecting Instructure, the company that provides the Canvas learning management system used by College of the Redwoods and thousands of colleges and universities nationwide.

At this time, students should once again be able to log in and access course materials, assignments, and communications. We recognize that this disruption occurred during an important point in the semester and may have impacted your ability to complete coursework, submit assignments, or communicate with instructors.

Faculty have been asked to take the outage into consideration when working with students on assignments, deadlines, quizzes, and other course activities affected by the disruption. If you experienced issues related to the outage, we encourage you to communicate directly with your instructor as soon as possible.

We recognize that this situation can be stressful. If you are feeling heightened anxiety around finals, resources are available to you.TimelyCare offers a variety of free and confidential services to support you, including:

    • TalkNow: 24/7, on-demand emotional support.
    • Scheduled Counseling: Select the day, time, and mental health provider of your choice.
    • Psychiatry: Appointments are available through referrals.
    • CrisisNow: 24/7, phone-based mental health support when facing urgent emotional challenges. No sign-up, no wait, just call and connect with a trained counselor in just a few seconds.
    • Call now: 707-237-5547
    • Self-Care Content: 24/7 access to self-care tools and resources, such as meditation and yoga sessions, helpful videos, and short articles from experts.
    • Peer Community: An anonymous and judgment-free space where you can connect with, react to, and support other students going through similar situations.

 Access services by logging into your MyCR Portal and selecting the TimelyCare app or by calling the number above.

Although Canvas services have largely been restored, the broader investigation into the cybersecurity incident is ongoing. As a precaution, students should remain alert for suspicious emails, text messages, or links claiming to be from Canvas, Instructure, or College of the Redwoods. Do not click links in unsolicited messages asking you to verify your account information or reset passwords. Instead, access Canvas directly through the official College of the Redwoods website or your bookmarked login page.

If you receive suspicious emails, Canvas messages, or login requests, please report them to the College of the Redwoods IT team at Cyber-Alert@redwoods.edu. This email address is safe to use and is an official College of the Redwoods cybersecurity reporting account. For your safety, we have listed the address as plain text rather than as a clickable link.

This information and any further updates can be found from the link entitled Important Updates & Student Information in the alert at the top of the redwoods.edu homepage. 

We appreciate your patience and understanding as services were restored.

College of the Redwoods

May 7 Email to Students:

Subject: Canvas is Down, Additional Information Coming

Canvas is currently experiencing a systemwide outage affecting colleges across California and beyond. The issue is connected to a cybersecurity incident involving Instructure, the Canvas vendor, which is actively working toward resolution.

At this time, there is no indication that College systems outside of Canvas have been impacted.

We understand this may cause frustration and disruption, particularly for coursework and assignments, and we appreciate your patience while the issue is being addressed.