A cybersecurity incident has disrupted Canvas, the primary learning management system used by Ohio State and Kent State universities, and is reportedly affecting other institutions nationwide as well.
Ben Johnson, a spokesperson for Ohio State University, said May 7 that a “national cybersecurity incident” had affected Instructure, the vendor that supports Canvas. Johnson said that services for Canvas are not available, and anyone who is logged into it should close their browser.
“CarmenCanvas is currently unavailable due to a national cybersecurity incident involving Instructure, the vendor behind Canvas,” said Johnson. “We realize the outage is very disruptive and are monitoring the situation closely and assessing the ongoing impact to campus services and data.”
According to the OSU IT Service Desk page, the issue began at 4 p.m. May 7. The outage is also affecting Kent State University, according to an announcement on the university’s website.
According to reporting from WRAL News in North Carolina, a hacker group dubbed “ShinyHunters” claimed responsibility for a data breach of Instructure and demanded a ransom, or it would release the personal data of both students and teachers.
Inside Higher Ed reported May 5 that the hacker group had breached Instructure in late April and had impacted nearly 9,000 schools worldwide, including K-12 schools and as well as colleges and universities.
Columbus City Schools and Ohio University are among other institutions that use Canvas, though the impact on those schools was not immediately clear.
This is a breaking news story. Check back at Dispatch.com for more updates.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio college students lose access to Canvas after hacking incident
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
