tech
Canvas Back Online After Cyberattack Shuttered Learning Platform for Schools Across U.S.
Updated on: May 8, 2026 / 11:36 AM EDT / CBS/AP
TL;DR
- The Canvas learning management system was offline due to a cyberattack, impacting thousands of schools and universities.
- Students faced difficulties studying for final exams, and some universities postponed finals due to the outage.
- The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Instructure, the company behind Canvas.
- Instructure took Canvas offline after hackers made changes to logged-in user pages, exploiting an issue with Free-For-Teacher accounts.
- Canvas is now back online and available for most users.
- The breach potentially affected nearly 9,000 schools worldwide, with billions of private messages and other records accessed.
- The attack is similar to a previous breach at PowerSchool, another provider of learning management tools.