Story updated May 11 at 10:25 a.m.
ShinyHunters said in a message that it will leak an unspecified amount of data on May 12 if it doesn’t hear from Instructure, according to the New York Times. It also threatened to leak “several billions of private messages among students and teachers” in its May 3 ransom note.
On behalf of the California Faculty Association (CFA), Margarita Berta-Ávila, the president, released a statement regarding the matter on May 8.
“It is deeply concerning that a learning management system the CSU pays millions for and requires faculty to use failed so completely,” Berta-Ávila said in the statement. “CFA is demanding a meet and confer meeting with Management to get more details and find solutions.”
Berta-Ávila said that CSU management has paid Instructure about $31.5 million within the last five years, and a private equity firm bought the company for $4.8 billion in 2024.
“This for-profit company and CSU management must come up with solutions to protect student and faculty data, and CFA members will hold them accountable,” Berta-Ávila said.
She also said that CFA is aware that the last contract day for lecturers is approaching, and they encourage faculty members to reach out to their respective campus CFA chapter if they need assistance or advice.
Story updated May 8 at 2:15 p.m.
A few campus community members shared their reactions to the Canvas outages via a question box on The Collegian’s Instagram story.
“My essay is due on Monday instead of Friday now,” one user said.
Another echoed the same sentiment.
“It didn’t affect me; it made my professors switch due dates on assignments, which was better,” one user said.
On the other hand, some people say the outages affected their ability to study and grade coursework.
“It’s stressing me out,” a commenter said. “I have assignments to do.”
One person said they are behind on grading, and another simply said they are scared.
“I can’t access the materials to study for my microbio final next week,” a comment reads.
Story updated May 8 at 1:37 p.m.
In a campus-wide email sent Friday afternoon, Johri said that Canvas is now available and accessible.
“Instructure has restored Canvas services, and the platform is now back online,” Johri said in the email.
She also addressed concerns regarding finals and other impacted assignments.
“A business continuity plan will be provided to faculty to support students who need to make up Canvas-related course assignments affected by the interruption,” Johri said. “Faculty will contact their students to provide details about their specific courses.”
Johri also warned students, faculty and staff to be aware of any phishing attempts.
“Do not click links in unsolicited messages claiming to be from Canvas, Instructure, Office of IDEAS, or Technology Services,” she said in the email. “Instead, open a browser and go directly to the official Fresno State Canvas site.”
Story updated May 8 at 12:54 p.m.
The Collegian reached out to Bao Johri, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer, with questions regarding university ransom negotiations, the state of Canvas’ availability and the plan for if this incident is not resolved by the time finals begin.
As of 12:54 p.m. on Friday, she has not responded.
ORIGINAL STORY PUBLISHED MAY 7 AT 3:08 P.M.
Canvas, the learning management system used by thousands of schools and universities, is experiencing yet another widespread outage as of May 7. This follows the cyberattack that occurred earlier this week that is linked to the hacking group, ShinyHunters.
The second outage comes days after Instructure, Canvas’ parent company, confirmed a major data breach involving names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private user messages.
ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to leak data tied to nearly 9,000 schools and 275 million users if demands are not met by May 12. ShinyHunters is a well-known cybercrime group previously linked to attacks involving companies like Ticketmaster, AT&T, Rockstar Games and ADT.
Any users attempting to access Canvas today were reportedly met with messages from the hacking group as the platform’s services, including Canvas Beta and Canvas Test, went offline.
Additionally, many schools across the U.S. and even internationally are reporting disruptions during grading periods and final exams.
Instructure said it has deployed security patches, launched a thorough investigation and revoked credentials with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement.
The company is adamant in urging users to understand that there is currently no evidence that either passwords or financial information are actively being compromised.
