Dear Avery County Schools Families,
Over the weekend, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) received an interim assessment from CrowdStrike, the third-party cybersecurity firm advising on the incident. NCDPI has been informed by Instructure that the Canvas environment throughout the nation and here in North Carolina has no ongoing signs of compromise.
As a result, NCDPI restored statewide connectivity with Canvas on Monday, May 11, at approximately 4 pm. As an added security measure, we will reset all Parent Observer account passwords in Canvas. Parents, if you wish to continue using your Parent Observer account this year, you will need to contact your child’s school to receive your new temporary password.
As a result of the scale of this breach, there may be an increase in phishing attempts over the next few weeks. Phishing is a type of cyberattack where scammers impersonate reputable organizations or individuals via email, text, or phone to steal sensitive information, such as login credentials, credit card numbers, and personal data. These attempts often include fake hyperlinks that look legitimate.
We recommend that all students and families are aware of the danger presented by phishing attempts and use caution when viewing emails that may seem suspicious. Any communications from unknown sources should be reported to the Avery County Schools Tech Team, and do NOT click on any suspicious links or attachments. This short video provides additional information to help keep our students safe from online scams.
For an overview of the incident and the latest updates from Instructure, families may visit the company’s incident status page.
Thank you for your continued support as we work to protect student and educator information and support uninterrupted teaching and learning.