Wake County school system

Profile narrative

Wake County school system is a public school district that provides K-12 education to residents of Wake County, located in the United States. The district operates a network of elementary, middle, and high schools. These schools deliver state‑mandated curricula. They also provide support services such as transportation, meals, and extracurricular programs. Instruction increasingly relies on digital tools. The district has adopted the Canvas learning management system from Instructure. Canvas facilitates online coursework, assignments, and communication between teachers, students, and parents. The use of Canvas allows the district to supplement classroom instruction with remote learning capabilities. It also enables tracking of academic progress through a centralized platform.

In May 2026, the Wake County school system experienced a cybersecurity incident when users of its Canvas LMS encountered a ransomware pop‑up demanding contact with the ShinyHunters group. The pop‑up appeared following a breach of Instructure that also affected Duke University, UNC‑Chapel Hill and thousands of other schools. The breach exposed personal information of staff and students. Officials reported that passwords, birth dates, government identifiers and financial data were not compromised. In response, the district temporarily disabled access to Canvas. It issued warnings advising users not to click on suspicious links or respond to the ransomware message. The district began monitoring the situation. It coordinated with Instructure and law‑enforcement agencies to investigate the attack. The goal was to restore normal service as quickly as possible.

Incidents

1 incident linked to this organisation.