Cyber Incident Victim: Idaho State University
Date:
May 2026
Location:
United States of America
Summary
A global cyber attack on the Canvas learning management system, claimed by the group ShinyHunters, disrupted thousands of universities and schools, forcing many to cancel or postpone exams and assignments. Idaho State University cancelled exams scheduled after noon local time. Other institutions, including the University of Sydney, Mississippi State University, Penn State, the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, reported outages, advised users to log out, postponed finals or sought workarounds while the provider worked to restore service.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On Sunday, the hacking group ShinyHunters began distributing messages that claimed responsibility for a breach of the Canvas learning management system, stating that nearly nine thousand schools and universities worldwide had been affected. The group asserted that it had accessed private messages, records and other data stored in the platform and threatened to release the information unless a settlement was negotiated. The attack caused the Canvas service to go offline for many institutions, disrupting the digital infrastructure that universities rely on for course delivery, grade tracking, lecture materials, discussion boards and communication between students and instructors.
On Thursday, Idaho State University announced that it had cancelled all exams scheduled after 12:00 local time (18:00 GMT) because the Canvas system remained unavailable. The university explained that it was one of approximately nine thousand institutions impacted by the outage and was still waiting for guidance from Instructure, the company that owns Canvas. The cancellation was intended to give students an opportunity to recover any work that might have been lost during the disruption and to avoid further complications during the critical end‑of‑year period. Idaho State also advised students not to attempt to log into Canvas while the service was offline.
Instructure issued an update late on Thursday indicating that Canvas was available for most users, but noted that some universities, including Idaho State, continued to report outages into Friday. Other affected campuses responded in various ways: Mississippi State University postponed its Friday final exams, Penn State cancelled some exams scheduled for Thursday and Friday, the University of British Columbia told students to log out immediately and warned of a cyber breach of Instructure’s parent company, and Northwestern University disclosed that it had received a ransom note from ShinyHunters seeking a private settlement. The widespread disruption interfered with students’ ability to submit assignments, access course materials and prepare for examinations, prompting institutions to adjust schedules and explore alternative methods to complete the semester.