Universities and schools K-12 across the country, including the University of Illinois and Illinois State University have been impacted by a massive data breach targeting a system widely used by students and faculty.
Thursday, May 7, 2026 11:40PMUniversities and schools K-12 across the country, including the University of Illinois and Illinois State University have been impacted by a massive data breach targeting a system widely used by students and faculty.
The breach involves Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, a web-based learning management system used daily by educators and students for coursework, assignments and communication. Thousands of institutions and millions of users have reportedly been affected, including the University of Pennsylvania. , the hackers reportedly wrote in Penn's Canvas page that any university that does not wish to have its data released should contact the group before May 12.
Students at Penn said they have not received official communication about the incident, though some are aware of the reports. Experts are urging vigilance as the situation develops.
"The one thing that stands out with this attack is its sector-wide. We have a vendor that's used by almost the majority of education institutions around the country," said Rob D'Ovidio, an associate professor in Drexel University's Department of Criminology. Canvas plays a central role in students' academic routines, serving as a hub for assignments, schedules and communication.
"We use canvas for all our classes, usually professors put our assignments on there, pretty big part of our day-to-day life," said Charles Shen, a junior. While experts say highly sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers, passwords and usernames has not been compromised. Other data has been exposed, including names, email addresses, messages and student ID numbers.
Still, students remain a prime target for scammers who may use the information obtained in the breach to launch phishing attacks or other fraudulent schemes.
"If I was a Canvas user at an institution that was compromised, I'd be on the lookout for phishing attacks," D'Ovidio said. Experts believe the group behind the breach may not use the data directly but could sell it to others, increasing the likelihood of targeted scams.
"Once they get this basic information, name, student ID, email, you become an increased risk you'll be targeted," D'Ovidio said. Despite the scale of the breach, some students say cyber incidents have become so common that they no longer come as a surprise. The group responsible for the breach is reportedly demanding a large payout from affected institutions and is threatening to release the data if payment is not made.
Experts recommend against paying such demands and instead advise affected users to monitor their accounts closely and be cautious of suspicious emails or messages. As school institutions assess the extent of the breach, officials and cybersecurity experts continue to urge caution among students and staff who rely on the platform every day. U of I said, "Canvas, our learning management system, is offline due to an ongoing cybersecurity incident.
We are awaiting information from Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, as to when the service will become available again. Until the vendor can solve this problem, course materials will be unavailable. This issue is affecting universities across the country. Members of university leadership are discussing next steps, with sensitivity to the impacts on students and instructors during the final exam period.
For status updates, please visitISU said, "The Canvas learning management system is currently experiencing an unexpected outage affecting universities nationwide, including Illinois State University. At this time, the cause of the outage and an estimated time to resolution are not known. We are monitoring the vendor's communications and keeping our campus community updated. "
Canvas Hacker Canvas Outage Canvas Data Breach Is Canvas Down Canvas News 19060406
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Illinois State Police to investigate fatal ICE shooting of Silverio Villegas-GonzalezISP is investigating the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez last year by an ICE officer in suburban Franklin Park.
Read more »
Could the Illinois State Police investigation into a fatal Franklin Park ICE shooting produce charges?Illinois State Police have launched an investigation into the ICE shooting in Franklin Park that killed an undocumented father last September. But will it result in charges being filed?
Read more »
The Top Cop: DUI arrests by decorated Illinois State Police trooper questioned in courtFor several years, an Illinois State Police trooper was recognized for making the most DUI arrests. Many of those arrested drivers tell the ABC7 I-Team they were sober, and in some cases, it took years to clear their names of serious criminal charges.
Read more »
Canvas outage hits Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Illinois and moreA nationwide Canvas outage has been reported, and is impacting schools in the Chicago area, including Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, UIC and the University of Illinois.
Read more »