Thousands of Institutions Hit by Major Canvas Outage
A large scale cyber attack disrupted universities and schools across several countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. The attack caused major problems for students and teachers during the important end of semester exam season.
The hacking group ShinyHunters reportedly claimed responsibility for the incident. The attack targeted Canvas, a popular academic platform owned by Instructure that thousands of educational institutions use for online classes, assignments, and exams.
The outage affected nearly 9,000 institutions around the world. Many students lost access to coursework, exam materials, and assignment submission systems.
Universities Respond to Canvas Disruptions
Several universities confirmed service interruptions and warned students not to log into the platform until systems became stable again.
University of Sydney informed students that Canvas was unavailable and acknowledged the disruption during a critical academic period. The university said it was waiting for further updates from Instructure.
In the United States, Mississippi State University postponed final exams to help students recover lost work caused by the outage.
Idaho State University also cancelled several exams after the system failure affected online access.
Meanwhile, Penn State University confirmed that users could not access Canvas. The university cancelled some exams and warned students that the issue might continue for more than 24 hours.
Canadian Universities Also Impacted
In Canada, University of British Columbia told students that Canvas became unavailable because of a cyber breach linked to its parent company. Students were advised to log out immediately as a safety measure.
University of Toronto also confirmed that multiple universities were affected by the cyber incident.
Students at University of California Los Angeles faced problems submitting assignments online. At the same time, University of Chicago temporarily shut down its Canvas page after reports suggested hackers targeted the institution directly.
Hackers Demand Ransom From Universities
Reports showed that hackers sent ransom style messages to some universities. Screenshots shared online revealed that the group encouraged institutions to contact them privately to negotiate payments and prevent the release of sensitive data.
A student from Northwestern University said he received a suspicious email that appeared to come from a university administrator. When he clicked the link, he reportedly saw a message connected to the hacking group.
Cybersecurity experts continue investigating the breach while universities work to restore systems and secure student information.
