Massive Canvas data breach hits colleges across California and nation, crippling student work
Key takeaways
- The group ShinyHunters — which previously has claimed to be behind hacks of Ticketmaster and AT&T — is taking credit.
- On Thursday, California students trying to log into Canvas instead got a message in white writing against a black backdrop:
- “If any of the schools in the affected list are interested in preventing the release of their data, please consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact us privately at TOX to negotiate a settlement.
People walk through Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley. (Washington Post via Getty Images) By Jaweed Kaleem Staff Writer Follow May 7, 2026 6:07 PM PT 7 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X Linked In Threads Reddit Whats App Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
A cybersecurity breach at the company behind the Canvas learning management system used widely across higher education institutions grew into a widespread outage Thursday that left students and faculty at dozens of California campuses locked out of an essential platform used to access coursework, readings and assignments during finals preparations.
The disruption at Instructure follows a breach disclosed last week in which a hacker group claimed it stole hundreds of millions of records tied to students and employees at roughly 9,000 schools in the U.S., Australia and Europe. The group ShinyHunters — which previously has claimed to be behind hacks of Ticketmaster and AT&T — is taking credit.