What is Canvas? Cyberattack disrupts online learning platform used by schools nationwide
Canvas, an online learning platform used by schools and universities across the country, was interrupted Thursday after a nationwide cyberattack disrupted access to the system. Here’s what to know about the platform and the cyberattack:
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What is Canvas used for?
The online learning platform serves as a central hub for assignments, grades, tests, lecture videos, attendance records and communication between students and instructors. Owned by Instructure, the platform is among the most widely used digital classroom systems in American education. Schools rely on it daily to post coursework, distribute study materials, administer quizzes, and maintain gradebooks.
Who owns Canvas?
According to its website, Instructure is an open education tech company based in Salt Lake City that was founded in 2008. It launched Canvas in 2011 as a cloud based learning management system for universities and schools.
Timing of attacks
Across Texas and the United States, the outage hit institutions including Southern Methodist University, University of North Texas, Baylor University, and Tarrant County College. This disruption was particularly poorly timed, coming as universities enter final exams and critical end-of-semester grading periods.
At institutions that depend heavily on Canvas, outages could delay exams, prevent students from submitting assignments, interrupt access to study materials and temporarily limit communication between faculty and students.
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Some instructors also lost access to digital gradebooks, testing portals and online coursework used to manage classes.
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Impact on universities
At Southern Methodist University, officials told students in a campus email reviewed by The Dallas Morning News that final exams scheduled for Friday would be postponed until Sunday because of the outage.
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Baylor University also delayed some exams while monitoring the nationwide disruption.
The Associated Press reported that the hacking group known as ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack. In an online alert Thursday evening, Instructure said Canvas had been placed into maintenance mode while teams worked to restore service.
The disruption underscored how deeply schools have integrated online learning systems into daily operations. What once served primarily as a supplemental classroom tool now functions as the primary digital infrastructure for coursework, testing, academic records and campus communication at many institutions.
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