AMHERST, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - UMass students and faculty opened up their online school platform, Instracture, greeted by this ominous message, from the self-identified hacking group, “Shiny-Hunters”.

Colleges and universities nationwide are part of the outage, prompting Instracture’s company, Canvas, to take down its websites until security is strengthened.

That means, right now, UMass community members don’t have access to courses, assignments, communications, and more.

In the meantime, the school’s IT department is advising users on what to do; be on alert for phishing attempts, including emails and texts, don’t click on suspicious links and never share UMass login credentials.

The UMass IT website has resources for more info on what to look out for — as well as updates to Canvas’ platforms.

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