{"id":435,"date":"2026-05-10T14:44:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dallasrelocationhubs.com\/?p=435"},"modified":"2026-05-10T15:56:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:56:51","slug":"a-day-after-canvas-cyberattack-north-texas-schools-are-assessing-the-damage-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dallasrelocationhubs.com\/?p=435","title":{"rendered":"A day after Canvas cyberattack, North Texas schools are assessing the damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note<\/h3><\/div><\/div>

3:22 p.m. May 8, 2026: This story updated with additional information.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div>

North Texas schools are\u00a0assessing the damage left from a\u00a0data breach affecting the education\u00a0platform\u00a0Canvas.<\/p>

Read more What is hantavirus? How it spreads, Texas history and what to know<\/a><\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/div>

A group known as\u00a0ShinyHunters\u00a0launched a cyberattack against the platform\u2019s parent company, Instructure, threatening to release data\u00a0stolen from colleges and school districts that use the platform if the company\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0agree to pay\u00a0a\u00a0ransom.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

The attack interrupted service nationwide. Although access was restored Friday, school districts and colleges are still dealing with fallout from the breach.<\/p><\/div>

Related:<\/b>\u00a0What is Canvas, the online platform used by schools nationwide hit by a cyberattack?<\/p><\/div>

Teachers and professors use Canvas to manage grades, make and collect assignments and post lecture videos, among other uses. On Thursday, Daniel Ramirez, chief information security officer for the Texas Education Agency, released guidance to school districts advising them on steps they should take, including reviewing account security and monitoring for suspicious activity. The agency is working directly with\u00a0Instructure through the Fort Worth-based Education Service Center 11, Ramirez said.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>
Dallas News Logo<\/desc><\/svg><\/div><\/div>
<\/svg><\/div><\/svg><\/div><\/div>

Don’t let Google decide who you trust.<\/div><\/h3>
Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/div>
Add Preferred Source<\/div><\/div><\/div>

A number of\u00a0North Texas districts sent notices to parents about the attack. In a letter\u00a0sent Friday morning, Garland ISD officials assured parents that the district\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0store any sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, home\u00a0addresses\u00a0or passwords in Canvas.\u00a0The district manages grades through Skyward, a separate platform, officials said, and students\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0be penalized for not turning in any assignments that were affected by the breach.<\/p><\/div>

Similarly, officials in Frisco ISD notified parents that hackers obtained some data associated with the district’s Canvas account, but the district doesn’t share sensitive data like Social Security numbers or financial information with the company.<\/p><\/div>

Dallas ISD doesn’t use Canvas. District officials said they’re working with the district’s higher education partners that may use the platform to determine whether any of the district’s students were affected.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, told the Associated Press.<\/p><\/div>

Related:<\/b>\u00a0Cyberattack and outage of Canvas online learning platform disrupts North Texas schools<\/p><\/div>

Screenshots Connolly provided to the Associated Press showed that the group had been threatening to leak the trove of data. By Friday,\u00a0Instructure and Canvas had been removed from a dedicated leak site created by the ransomware group on the dark web to publish stolen data, he said.<\/p><\/div>

Connolly described ShinyHunters as a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The group also has been tied to other attacks, including Live Nation\u2019s Ticketmaster subsidiary.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

Canvas breach disrupts finals for Texas colleges<\/h2><\/div>

The breach hit\u00a0universities across the country, like Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan, according to their student newspapers. Several\u00a0North\u00a0Texas\u00a0schools\u00a0lost access\u00a0to Canvas,\u00a0including Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas System,\u00a0Baylor University, and Tarrant County College.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

The\u00a0cyberattack\u00a0came just as students were preparing for final exams.\u00a0At SMU, final exams scheduled for Friday were postponed until Sunday, officials said in a Thursday email.\u00a0The\u00a0same day,\u00a0Baylor University also announced\u00a0plans to delay final exams scheduled for Friday.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

The\u00a0University\u00a0of Texas at Arlington\u00a0said\u00a0its\u00a0Information Security office is assessing the impact on students.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

According to its website, Tarrant County College is monitoring the situation, noting that the \u201cbreach remains isolated.\u201d There is no evidence that passwords, financial information or social security numbers were compromised, the school said.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

At a La Madeleine restaurant near SMU, freshmen Chase Feltheimer and Ashton Perisa hunched over their notebooks and laptops, brewing over moral and societal dilemmas. They were doing some last-minute studying before their philosophy final Friday.<\/p><\/div>

\u201cIt was a bad time for [the breach] to happen,\u201d Feltheimer said.<\/p><\/div>

While Feltheimer had the option to take the final on Sunday, he figured it would be better to get it out of the way. After all, he would rather spend time with his mom on Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

But they anticipate that other students will take advantage of the extra days to hit the books. When Feltheimer and Perisa go to take the test at around midday, they anticipate their class will look sparser than usual.<\/p>

Read more Where is the cheapest gas in North Texas?<\/a><\/p><\/div>

\u201cIt is fun to have a delayed final and get to be able to study a little longer,\u201d Perisa said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, if you\u2019re able to get it done, you should not have to worry about extra stress.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Rahul Unnam, a UNT master\u2019s student, checks Canvas daily, so he noticed when the site was down. With deadlines approaching, he was initially confused about how to submit his schoolwork.<\/p><\/div>

Luckily, professors were quick to maneuver, having students hand-write assignments or turn them in through email, he said. Besides having contact information stored on Canvas, Unman wasn\u2019t concerned by the breach \u2014 just inconvenienced.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

\u201cIt\u2019s mostly educational stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if they take my PowerPoint presentation, what are they going to do with it?\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Besides, his days perusing Canvas will soon come to an end, one way or another. He is set to walk across the graduation stage Monday.<\/p><\/div>

Fort Worth ISD and Canvas attack<\/h2><\/div>

Ale Checka, a teacher at Southwest High School in Fort Worth ISD, said leaders at her school sent an email Thursday advising teachers to shut down their computers and make sure their students had done the same. The school librarian, who also handles tech issues, then went to every teacher and asked them to make sure their phones were off the school\u2019s\u00a0Wi-Fi\u00a0network, she said.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

On Friday morning, the school\u2019s principal announced that teachers and students could get back online but should still avoid logging into Canvas. That was a major disruption for teachers,\u00a0Checka\u00a0said. Students\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0access or\u00a0submit\u00a0assignments through the platform. Many teachers had entire lesson modules stored in Canvas and\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0had paper copies for years, she said.<\/p><\/div>

Checka said she was less affected than some of her colleagues because she avoids using the platform as much as possible.<\/p><\/div>

\u201cIt\u2019s just a pain in the butt, and that\u2019s on the best day,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/div>

The Canvas breach\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0the first time Fort Worth ISD has dealt with cybersecurity issues. In March 2020, just days before the pandemic shut down campuses, a malware attack shut down the district\u2019s website and computer network. That attack was more disruptive,\u00a0Checka\u00a0said, because it not only prevented them from communicating with students, but also prevented them from using the network to communicate with each other.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

\u201cOn\u00a0the scale of disruptive ransomware attacks, this one is less bad,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/div>

Other North Texas school districts have been targeted by cyber criminals. In separate incidents in 2021, hackers accessed the networks of Dallas ISD and Allen ISD and stole personal information\u00a0of district staff and students.<\/p><\/div>

Cybersecurity expert: Communication is key<\/h2><\/div>

Cliff Steinhauer, director of information security and engagement at the National Cybersecurity Alliance, said it\u2019s important for districts to keep updating parents and teachers about what they know and don\u2019t know in the aftermath of the breach. For most students, the primary concern is most likely assignments and due dates, he said, so districts need to have a plan for how they\u2019ll work with students whose assignments were disrupted.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>

For parents and students, it\u2019s important to be wary of any correspondence that looks like it\u2019s coming from their schools, their teachers or Canvas, Steinhauer said. The breach has gotten enough attention that it gives other bad actors an opening to try to trick people into giving up their contact information or passwords, he said. If parents see a suspicious-looking email purporting to be from their kids\u2019 school, they should call the school to confirm, he said.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Cyberattacks against schools have become increasingly common over the past few years, with criminals exploiting often-outdated security systems and under-resourced cybersecurity teams. But the Canvas breach was different in that it targeted a trusted vendor, rather than school districts themselves.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

It\u2019s unreasonable to expect school districts not to use platforms like Canvas, Steinhauer said. But it\u2019s important for districts to ask tough questions about issues like security when their contracts with those companies come up for renewal, he said. There are only a handful of companies providing the same services that Canvas offers, he said, but there\u2019s enough competition that districts can shop around if the company they work with doesn\u2019t seem like a safe option.<\/p><\/div>

North Texas school districts, colleges affected by Canvas outage<\/h2><\/div>

Here are some of the schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area affected by the Canvas\u00a0cyberattack.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div>