A nationwide cyberattack affecting a widely used learning platform disrupted universities and school districts across the United States during finals week on Thursday, as hackers demanded a ransom.
Canvas, a cloud-based platform used by more than 30 million users globally, acts as a central hub for grades, assignments and communication between students and staff.
Its sudden outage left thousands unable to study, submit work or even contact instructors.
Why It Matters
This is the second cyber incident this month involving Canvas’ parent company, Instructure, which highlights persistent vulnerabilities across a platform used by millions of students.
Because Canvas is central to coursework, exams and communication, and even a short disruption can derail academic schedules at a critical time of year.
What To Know
Students logging into Canvas on Thursday saw a message from the hacking group ShinyHunters, which claimed responsibility for the breach.
The message accused Instructure of ignoring earlier contact, and warned that data could be released if demands were not met by a set deadline.
Across the U.S., students are in the middle of spring finals week. One University of Pennsylvania student described the disruption as unsettling, telling CNN that he felt “deprived of significant resources to study and do the best.”
At Georgetown University, sophomore Minhal Nazeer said students were “freaking out,” but admitted the disruption had given her more time to refine her work after deadlines were pushed back.
Faculty were also caught off guard. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, student Allison Park said instructors struggled to contact their classes once Canvas went down.
Meanwhile, some institutions began adjusting schedules. James Madison University delayed exams, according to an announcement, while other campuses warned students about disruptions to assignments and grading.
The attack follows an earlier breach disclosed by Instructure on May 1, when the company confirmed that hackers had accessed certain user information.
On Friday morning, Instructure said Canvas was “now fully back online and available for use” after taking the system offline to investigate the incident.
An Instructure spokesperson told Newsweek: “Yesterday, Instructure discovered the unauthorized actor involved in our ongoing security incident made changes to the pages that appeared when some students and teachers were logged in. Out of an abundance of caution, we immediately took Canvas offline to contain access and further investigate. We have confirmed that the unauthorized actor exploited an issue related to our Free-For-Teacher accounts.
“As a result, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily shut down our Free-For-Teacher accounts. This gives us the confidence to restore access to Canvas, which is now fully back online and available for use. We regret the inconvenience and concern this may have caused.”
List of Universities and School Districts Affected
Universities known to be impacted include:
- Columbia University
- Rutgers University
- Princeton University
- Kent State University
- Harvard University
- Georgetown University
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Washington
- University of California, Riverside
- James Madison University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Additional institutions cited in reports or claimed by the attackers include:
- University of Oxford
- Stanford University
- University of Cambridge
- Cornell University
School districts affected span multiple states, including:
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
Update: 05/08/26, 04:39 a.m. ET. This article has been updated with more information.
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