Nationwide Canvas ‘cybersecurity incident’ affecting CCSD, UNLV

Clark County School District (CCSD) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) experienced disruptions on Thursday due to a nationwide cybersecurity incident affecting the learning management system Canvas. CCSD confirmed in an email to families that Canvas was unavailable for students and staff, advising against login attempts or clicking suspicious links. The district emphasized that Canvas contains limited student and staff information, excluding highly sensitive data like Social Security numbers or financial records. UNLV also reported system-wide outages in Canvas, clarifying that the issue was not isolated to the university and that its own systems remained secure. Kivanc Oner, UNLV’s chief information officer, stated in an email on Wednesday that the incident originated with Canvas’ vendor, Instructure, and was impacting multiple institutions. Oner noted that Instructure had confirmed the incident was contained, while UNLV continued monitoring updates alongside the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). NSHE confirmed the disruption was not a cybersecurity breach within its own systems or those of individual institutions but rather a vendor issue affecting many institutions nationwide. The system is actively supporting its campuses and assessing the situation. A spokesperson for Instructure did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The disruption has caused concern among students, faculty, and staff across affected institutions, prompting NSHE to share updates as information becomes available. Both CCSD and UNLV urged their communities to avoid engaging with suspicious links and to await further instructions.