A Canvas outage tied to a cyberattack has wreaked havoc on colleges’ final exam season

A cyberattack on Canvas, an online platform managing exams, grades, and course materials for nearly 9,000 schools and 275 million users, caused widespread disruptions during final exam season. The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility, threatening to leak sensitive data unless a ransom was paid by May 6, later extending the deadline after some schools engaged in negotiations. Canvas, owned by Instructure, was fully restored by late Thursday, though some schools kept access restricted to assess security risks. The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth postponed exams scheduled for Friday and Saturday, while the University of Illinois delayed all exams through Sunday. Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland continued blocking access out of caution. ShinyHunters, a loose collective of teenage and young adult hackers in the U.S. and U.K., has targeted major organizations before, including Ticketmaster. The group described itself as having accessed systems since 1999 and warned that educational institutions, rich in personal data, were prime targets for ransomware attacks. The outage highlighted vulnerabilities in education systems relying on external platforms like Canvas and PowerSchool. Schools, including Minneapolis Public Schools and Los Angeles Unified, have faced similar cyber threats in recent years. While most institutions recovered access, the incident left lingering concerns about data security and operational continuity during critical academic periods.