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Canvas down today: Amid outage issues; chilling ShinyHunters hack message emerges - how to fix
Canvas was reportedly down for thousands of users on Thursday and a message from ShinyHunters was allegedly displayed on the screen.
Canvas was reportedly down for thousands of users on Thursday and a message from ShinyHunters was allegedly displayed on the screen. As per Downdetector, around 8137 people faced issues at the time of writing.
Canvas by Instructure is a cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) which is designed for educational institutions, schools, and businesses to manage online, hybrid, or in-person learning.
Several people complained about the outage and remarked that Canvas had gotten hacked. “Final exam just got canceled cuz canvas got hacked wtf. Can’t tell if we are so up or so down.” They shared a screenshot of the message visible to them.
"SHINY HUNTERS rooting your systems since 19 ;) ShinyHunters has breached Instructure (again). Instead of contacting us to resolve it they ignored us and did some "security patches". A WARNING If any of the schools in the affected list are interested in preventing the release of their data, please consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact us privately at TOX to negotiate a settlement. You have till the end of the day by 12 May 2026 before everything is leaked. Instructure still has until EOD 12 May 2026 to contact us," the message read.
Others too lodged their protests on X. “I WAS STUDYING FOR A FINAL IN 40 MINS AND CANVAS GOES DOWN,” one wrote. Another added, “Oh well... Instructure/Canvas is down due to a cyber attack. Sorry students! your grades will be finalized as soon as possible.”
Yet another wrote “Every single instance of Canvas (college network) just went down due to a hack from ShinyHunters. I could’ve gotten out of finals had you done this a week ago.”
Canvas noted “Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test are currently unavailable.” They added "We are currently investigating this issue."
Canvas down: How to fix
Since this is a vendor-level issue there is no fix on the user end. However, it is imperative that users do not engage with the alleged message put out by the hackers. To that end, they should not click on the download affected schools link that is there in the message. Nor should they try and visit the Onion browser link attached in the message below.
Instructure and ShinyHunters breach: What to know
While Canvas has not issued a statement about today's outage, Instructure disclosed a security incident on May 3, 2026. “Instructure recently experienced a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor. We are actively investigating this incident with the help of outside forensics experts. We are working quickly to understand the extent of the incident and actively taking steps to minimize its impact. Maintaining your trust is our highest priority, and we are committed to transparency throughout this process. We will provide new information as it is confirmed,” the message read.
This came after ShinyHunters reportedly put Instructure on its data leak site and claimed responsibility for the intrusion. ShinyHunters are an extortion group known to be financially motivated. Their modus operandi is to steal large volumes of information from software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers and pressure victims with “pay-or-leak” threats rather than deploying ransomware. They have been active since 2020 and some of their other targets have included Tokopedia, AT&T, and Ticketmaster.
