Ohio college students lose access to Canvas after hacking incident

Ohio State University and Kent State University experienced disruptions to their Canvas learning management system on May 7 due to a national cybersecurity incident involving Instructure, the vendor that supports Canvas. Ohio State University spokesperson Ben Johnson confirmed the outage, advising users to log out immediately and stating that services were unavailable. The issue began at 4 p.m. on May 7 and is also affecting other institutions nationwide. A hacker group called ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, targeting Instructure and demanding a ransom to prevent the release of personal data belonging to students and teachers. According to reporting from WRAL News and Inside Higher Ed, the breach occurred in late April and impacted nearly 9,000 schools globally, including K-12 and higher education institutions. Ohio State University’s IT Service Desk confirmed the outage, while Kent State University also acknowledged the disruption on its website. Other Ohio institutions using Canvas, such as Columbus City Schools and Ohio University, may also be affected, though the extent of the impact remains unclear. The disruption has caused significant inconvenience for students and faculty relying on Canvas for coursework and communication. Ohio State University is monitoring the situation closely and assessing the ongoing effects on campus services and data security.