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Multiple universities forced to reschedule final exams after Canvas cyber incident

Therecord.Media • May 8, 2026

On Thursday, dozens of students took to social media to say they saw a message from a cybercriminal group as they navigated through Canvas, an educational platform created by Instructure that hosts teaching materials, tests, readings and more.

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This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Global Cyberattack Disrupts Canvas Learning Management System, Affects Thousands of Schools A global cyberattack attributed to the hacking group ShinyHunters has disrupted the Canvas learning management system, affecting nearly 9,000 schools worldwide. The attack led to significant outages, prompting universities like Penn State and the University of Illinois to cancel or postpone final exams. Canvas was taken offline as a precaution after unauthorized access was detected, with Instructure, the parent company, reporting that personal information of users was compromised, although no passwords or financial data were involved. The attack has raised concerns about data security and the impact on academic schedules, with universities scrambling to address grading and exam logistics. As of May 8, Canvas was restored for most users, but some institutions continued to face challenges in resuming normal operations. 6 sources 67

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Canvas