Nearly 9,000 colleges and universities were impacted by the Canvas outage, which occurred on Thursday evening. A criminal cyber organization known as ShinyHunters claimed it had obtained data associated with the Canvas accounts.

According to several news outlets, students and teachers received a disturbing notification upon trying to sign in, indicating that unless a ransom was paid by May 12, users’ data would be released.

The platform used by educational facilities across the U.S. downed teachers and students at one of the busiest times of the year—exam week.

In an announcement by Virginia Tech that began when the attack was discovered, students and staff were continually updated and notified of changes to certain exam dates.

An update issued today indicated the breach had been cleared and user accessibility to Canvas restored.