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ShinyHunters defaced Canvas login portals used by hundreds of colleges and universities after claiming a second compromise of Instructure, the education technology company behind the platform. The attackers displayed ransom messages on school login pages and in the Canvas app, threatening to leak stolen student and staff data unless Instructure entered negotiations by May 12. Reports said roughly 330 institutions saw the defacement, which was linked to an injected HTML file and forced Instructure to take parts of Canvas offline while investigating. The disruption hit during a critical academic period, causing login failures, coursework interruptions, and warnings from universities about phishing and delayed assignments.
The defacement followed Instructure’s earlier disclosure that attackers had stolen data tied to thousands of schools using Canvas. ShinyHunters claimed the haul included hundreds of millions of records from nearly 9,000 schools and education platforms, including user records, private messages, and enrollment data obtained through Canvas export features and APIs. Instructure said stolen information included certain identifying data and user messages, but that it found no evidence of exposure of passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information. Subsequent reporting said the intrusion was tied to an issue involving Free-for-Teacher accounts, those accounts were temporarily shut down, affected organizations were notified, and Instructure later said it paid the extortionists, received the data back, and obtained confirmation that the stolen files were destroyed.
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On May 11, Instructure said it paid the extortionists, received the stolen data back, obtained digital confirmation that the data was destroyed, and was told customers would not face further extortion.
Universities responded to the Canvas disruption by restricting access, warning students about phishing risks, and in some cases extending assignment deadlines because coursework submission depended on the platform.
After the defacement spread broadly, Instructure took Canvas offline and parts of its website became only partially available or showed a scheduled maintenance notice. The disruption affected schools during a critical academic period and caused login failures for many users.
Attackers attributed to ShinyHunters defaced Canvas login pages for hundreds of colleges and universities, and the message also appeared in the Canvas app. The extortion note claimed responsibility for the earlier breach and threatened to leak stolen data unless ransom negotiations occurred by May 12.
Before the login-page defacements, Instructure disclosed it was investigating a cyberattack after threat actors claimed to have stolen massive amounts of student and staff data tied to Canvas. The company later confirmed that data was stolen, including certain identifying information and user messages, while saying there was no evidence passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information were exposed.
Subsequent updates said affected organizations were notified on May 6 and that Free-for-Teacher accounts were temporarily shut down as part of the response. Instructure also said the attackers exploited an issue tied to Free-for-Teacher accounts.
Instructure CISO Steve Proud said on May 2 that the company was investigating the incident with outside forensic experts and taking steps to minimize impact on Canvas users.
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Instructure, the company behind the Canvas learning management system, disclosed that a criminal threat actor breached its environment and stole user data from affected educational institutions. The company said the exposed information included **names, email addresses, student ID numbers, course and enrollment details, and messages between users**, while it found no evidence that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, financial information, course content, or student submissions were compromised. Reporting tied the intrusion to the **ShinyHunters** extortion group, which claimed far broader impact—up to **3.65 TB** of data and roughly **275 million records** across nearly **9,000 schools**—though those figures were not independently verified. Instructure said the attackers exploited flaws in its **Free-for-Teacher** environment, brought in outside forensic experts, notified law enforcement, revoked privileged credentials and access tokens, rotated keys, patched systems, and required some customers to reauthorize API access. The incident escalated when attackers allegedly reused the same access path to deface Canvas login portals with ransom messages, prompting Instructure to temporarily take Canvas offline and suspend Free-for-Teacher accounts while it contained the activity. The outage disrupted universities and schools across the U.S., Canada, Australia, Europe, and Asia during final exams, forcing some institutions to postpone tests, extend deadlines, or block access as a precaution. Instructure later said it reached an agreement with the threat actor under which the stolen data was returned and deletion was purportedly confirmed, but the company acknowledged there is no guarantee criminals actually destroyed their copies. The breach has since triggered warnings about follow-on phishing and impersonation campaigns, lawsuits, and scrutiny from the **U.S. House Homeland Security Committee** over how the same platform was compromised twice in quick succession.
Jun 29, 2026
Instructure disclosed a major breach of its **Canvas** learning management system after the **ShinyHunters** group allegedly exploited a vulnerability in the platform’s **Free-For-Teacher** account program on April 30, 2026. The attackers claimed to have stolen data on **275 million individuals**, including student, faculty, and staff information and private messages between students and teachers, with reports estimating about **3.65 TB** of exfiltrated data. The incident was reported to affect thousands of institutions worldwide, with cited impact ranging from **8,809** to roughly **15,000** schools and organizations across the U.S., Europe, and the U.K. After Instructure initially chose to patch systems rather than negotiate, ShinyHunters escalated the campaign by **defacing Canvas login portals** and disrupting final examinations at multiple universities when a ransom deadline approached. Instructure later suspended the Canvas portal during the fallout, and subsequent reporting said the company paid a ransom after receiving digital confirmation that the stolen data had been destroyed and that customers would not face further extortion. The operation was characterized as a **pay-or-leak extortion campaign** that abused account access, application-layer weaknesses, and platform or API functionality rather than deploying malware or encrypting systems.
Jul 7, 2026
A cyberattack against Instructure’s **Canvas** platform disrupted universities and K-12 schools across the United States, with major California institutions including UC, CSU, USC, Stanford, and community colleges reporting outages and academic disruption during finals. Ransom notes attributed to **ShinyHunters** appeared on some school homepages, and the FBI said it was assisting victims in multiple states while warning students and staff not to engage with extortionists or scammers. Schools extended deadlines, changed exam schedules, and shifted to alternate communication channels as Canvas services were restored. Instructure said an unauthorized actor exploited a vulnerability tied to support tickets in its **Free for Teacher** environment, which the company temporarily disabled while conducting a broader security review. The company later confirmed unauthorized access to part of its environment and said exposed data could include usernames, email addresses, course names, enrollment information, student ID numbers, and user messages, while passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, financial data, course content, submissions, and credentials were not compromised. The incident renewed scrutiny of centralized education technology providers after earlier education-sector extortion cases, including reports that **PowerSchool** paid a ransom following claims that data on **62 million students** had been stolen.
Jun 29, 2026