07 Jul The Canvas Hack: Who, What, Where, When, and Why
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This week in cybersecurity from the editors at Cybercrime Magazine
Sausalito, Calif. – Jul. 7, 2026
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EdTech company Instructure confirmed a massive data breach this past spring. The ShinyHunters group claimed responsibility, alleging that data of 275 million individuals was stolen, including private messages between students and teachers. Instructure, best known for its Canvas learning management system used by schools and universities worldwide, disclosed the incident on May 1.
HackRead obtained the full list of affected institutions impacted by the breach, indicating the vast scale of the theft and impacting around 15,000 institutions across the U.K., Europe, and the U.S.
Instructure said it was forced to suspend the Canvas portal May 7. At the time, 30 million users — including around half of the higher education institutions in North America — relied on Canvas to manage courses, submit assignments, view grades and facilitate communication. Some schools affected by the breach postponed or outright scrapped some final exams, with others warning students and professors that they might need to do so.
On May 12 it was reported that Instructure paid a ransom to a gang of cybercriminals, and said it “received digital confirmation of data destruction (shred logs)” and assurance “that no Instructure customers will be extorted as a result of this incident, publicly or otherwise.”
Michael Centrella, the Head of Public Policy at SecurityScorecard, and Theresa Payton, former White House CIO, recently joined Amanda Glassner, Deputy Editor at Cybercrime Magazine, for a riveting discussion on the Canvas breach.
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