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Blackboard down for Internet Explorer users

By Laura Woodward

Students and administration using Internet Explorer 11 as their web browser are no longer granted access to Blackboard.

When trying to access the site, an error pop up appears with the only option to close the program. After clicking “close program,” it reopens Blackboard in another tab, only to repeat the same error.

This due to a Microsoft security update that was released on Feb. 11.

The update was installed to prevent unauthorized access of information on a specially crafted webpage like Blackboard.

“The most severe vulnerabilities with accessing [Blackboard] could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited the most severe of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user,” Microsoft Security Bulletin posted.

Blackboard is Ryerson’s only portal to access the necessary course information, documents and mark updates, which some students find crucial for success.

“All of my course readings are found on blackboard,” said first-year communications student, Hayley Graham. ”It’s frustrating that there are so many glitches with such an important site, especially with all the tech support at Ryerson.”

But it’s not the first time Blackboard has seen this issue.

“Something like this happened once before. Just after we installed Blackboard for the first time, Microsoft released an Internet Explorer security patch that caused problems. It took some time for Microsoft to correct the problem,” Brian Lesser, the Director of Ryerson’s Computing and Communications Services (CCS) said.

Until the issue is resolved, CCS recommends users with Internet Explorer 11 to access Blackboard through chrome or firefox.

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