BREAKING NEWS: Orange Coast College students share anxieties amid Canvas cyberattack

May has begun, and the anxieties of finals, graduation, and the future loom large for Orange Coast College students.

Thursday afternoon, the Coast Community College district released an email about the known information of a mass cyberattack that has affected 9,000+ schools, including Golden West College, Coastline College and OCC:

“Dear Students,

Following the cybersecurity incident, the Canvas System has been compromised and is currently unavailable. We are waiting for Instructure to resolve the issue.

We will inform you as soon as Canvas is available for use again.

All faculty are aware of the situation and are taking this into consideration for any assignment deadlines.â€

The email was sent by the Coast Community College District’s Information Technology Services Department.

OCC sociology major Clara Ledesma said this disruption has halted a final group project that could affect her transfer to UC Santa Barbara.

“I’m trying my best to figure out where to put my time to be productive,†Ledesma said. “Hopefully, whenever Canvas is up next, I can complete the other assignments that I know are due Saturday.â€

OCC history major Markheiyl Alano said he has two essays due Friday that he hopes will be moved to later in the semester, but that he is not concerned about having to transfer at a later time if this affects his grade.

“I’m not too worried about it because it’s just in my line of thinking, it’s just like a small part of my life,†Alano said. “And plus, it’s probably going to be fixed by like, tomorrow, probably.”

Unlike the others, psychology major Seth Lopez is not transferring from OCC this year.

However, Lopez said that without an extension, the outage could affect grades in classes that he cares about.

“I would definitely worry about (no extensions),†Lopez said. “I would still prefer to keep an A or B with no kind of missing assignments. So it kind of does worry me in a sense.â€