Canvas System Used by Thousands of Schools Is Back Online
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Connolly described ShinyHunters as a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The group also has been tied to other attacks, including one aimed at Live Nation's Ticketmaster subsidiary.
Personal data of students and educators was exposed in a huge cyberattack on Canvas, with hackers threatening to release billions of messages. (Adobe Stock)
UH is among nearly 9,000 schools worldwide affected by a cyberattack by criminal extortion group ShinyHunters on Infrastructure.
Thousands of K-12 school districts and colleges use Canvas nationwide, including U of I and Northwestern University, to manage classes, post assignments and communicate with students.
Most users regained access to the platform hours after a hacking group said it had attacked Canvas’s parent company and breached 275 million people’s data.
Several North Texas schools and colleges were impacted by a cyberattack on Canvas, a commonly-used online platform for education. Here's the latest as the system comes back up.
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The Canvas learning platform breach may have exposed 275 million users across 8,809 schools and universities — names, emails, student IDs, and private messages
When Canvas went dark during finals season in May 2026, students at thousands of colleges and universities lost access to their exam materials, assignment portals, and instructor messages at the worst possible moment.
According to the university system, a threat actor has interrupted access to Canvas for users on all four NU campuses and campuses nationwide.
The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Instructure, the company behind Canvas, a threat analyst said.
The disruption comes after most University of Michigan students left campus, with final exams held from April 23 through April 30. Under the UM Faculty Handbook, grades are due 72 hours after a final exam is administered. Still, the May 7 shutdown could still affect students and instructors working to complete end‑of‑term grading and assignments.
A widespread disruption to the Canvas learning management system briefly knocked students and teachers offline across North America, including at the University