Hack Shuts Down Canvas, an Online System Used By Thousands of Schools

A cybercriminal gang has disrupted numerous schools by shutting down Canvas, an online educational IT system used for online courses, study guides and testing. 

Students and professors have been reporting the hack after trying to access Canvas, and seeing an extortion note from the ShinyHunters gang, a cybercriminal group that’s been on a spree of high-profile breaches in recent weeks.

“ShinyHunters has breached Instructure (again),” the note says, referring to the company that develops Canvas. Last Friday, Instructure disclosed it had suffered a “cybersecurity incident,” prompting the company to investigate, and rescind the access from the attacker. 

Yesterday, Instructure reported that Canvas was “fully operational, and we are not seeing any ongoing unauthorized activity.” But now ShinyHunters is gloating about breaking back in. The extortion note also claims to have stolen data from the affected schools after Instructure indicated that names, email addresses and student ID numbers had been exposed.

The note from ShinyHunters adds: “Instead of contacting us to resolve it they (Instructure) ignored us and did some ‘security patches.’” The group is also giving both Instructure and the affected schools until Tuesday, May 12th to negotiate a payment, or else the stolen data will be leaked. 

An attached text file also claims the affected institutions number at nearly 9,000, which includes school districts. Universities and colleges including Princeton, Penn State, Baylor University, the University of British Columbia, have since confirmed they’re facing a Canvas outage. One even warned: “If you are logged in, please log out now and change your CWL password immediately.”

Penn State added: “Out of an abundance of caution, users should avoid interacting with or clicking on any links, messages, or content that may be posted by threat actors or appear suspicious during this event. Penn State will never direct users to unverified third-party sites for Canvas-related communications or remediation activities.”

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The outage came at especially bad time given that many universities are holding finals. “My poor students were quite literally taking a final exam when this happened. Long essay format. I’m praying it’s all saved for them!” wrote one user on Reddit.

“I have a final tomorrow, I fear I may be screwed,” wrote another student, although others wonder if their schools will be forced to reschedule.

Instructure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But Dark Web Informer reports that ShinyHunters has apparently removed the company from the gang’s site on the Dark Web, suggesting Instructure may have paid the ransom. 

ShinyHunters has been notorious for using English language phone calls and impersonation to trick employees at companies into handing over access to their IT systems. Last month, the group claimed responsibility for stealing data from Vimeo and home security provider ADT. That said, ShinyHunters has been known to hype up their hacking claims when the actual stolen details can have little impact on victim companies, like in the case of RockStar Games.

Still, the Canvas breach will bring the group even more notoriety, along with heightened scrutiny from law enforcement. The malware library and research site Vx Underground noted that “ShinyHunters is having their ALPHV moment,” referring to another infamous hacking gang. In 2024, ALPHV was behind the Change Healthcare attack, which shut down IT systems at hospitals and pharmacies. ALPHV then apparently disbanded  

For now, ShinyHunters merely told PCMag in an email: “Yes we are behind it (the Canvas breach), we have no further comments to make at this time.” The group later added: “we are not known to exaggerate our claims nor have we are done so.”

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

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Experience

I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.

Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

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