This article is a developing story and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.
Cornell lost access to Canvas, its course management system, for approximately six hours on Thursday after ShinyHunters, a cybercriminal group, targeted Cornell and thousands of other schools in an alleged security breach of Instructure, Canvas’ parent company.
Canvas is used as a primary method for assessment and communication between faculty, teaching staff and students at Cornell and thousands of other universities and K-12 institutions across the U.S.
The platform went dark for Cornell users at approximately 4:30 p.m before coming back online around 10:15 p.m. Thursday. The shutdown comes during the study period for final exams, which are scheduled to begin on Saturday.
ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the security breach in a Canvas message, stating the affected schools — approximately 9,000 — have until the end of the day on May 12 before "everything is leaked,” and to contact the group “privately” to “negotiate a settlement.” It is currently unclear how the issue was resolved or if a deal was reached between Instructure and ShinyHunters.
After the platform came back online, a new Canvas message reads: “Instructure is currently investigating a cybersecurity incident that began on May 1, 2026. The issue is believed to be contained.” It refers to an IT alert for more information.
The original message from ShinyHunters stated that the group had breached Instructure “again,” after claiming to have accessed data for 275 million people across 9,000 schools in a breach on Sunday, according to a letter posted to Ransomware.live. The ransom message gave Instructure an initial deadline of Wednesday to reach out. “Pay or Leak,” the message read.
“Instead of contacting us to resolve it they ignored us and did some ‘security patches,’” the Canvas message, which gave an updated deadline of May 12, stated.
A list of affected schools released by the group includes eCornell, Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell University ILR School.
The Cornell IT page first posted a security alert on Tuesday titled “Canvas Security Incident.” The updated report stated that “Canvas, the university's learning management system, is unavailable while the vendor Instructure responds to a nationwide security incident.”
It is unclear what information tied to Cornell affiliates was included in the alleged security breach. At the time of publication, University administrators and Cornell Information Technology did not respond to The Sun’s requests for comment.
Chief Information Officer Ben Maddox and Steve Jackson, vice provost for academic innovation, sent an email to the Cornell community at 9:32 p.m. — roughly five hours after the shutdown — confirming that the outage was linked to a “global security incident impacting thousands of institutional Canvas clients worldwide and millions of individual users.”
Maddox and Jackson also wrote that Cornell is “monitoring Instructure’s progress in resolving” the shutdown and is “working towards local responses” to support the Cornell community.
“We are mindful that final exams start this weekend on the Ithaca campus,” the email stated. “The Center for Teaching Innovation is providing resources to help faculty explore options for administering exams if this outage continues. Students with finals on Saturday or Sunday should await further communication from faculty members.”
The email directed the community to the IT Status Alerts page for updates and the Weill Cornell community to the Educational Technologies division for alternative options to Canvas.
The outage has disrupted study plans for students during the study period before final exams are administered, and prohibited students from turning in final assignments and projects.
Hasham Khan ’26 was studying for his PHYS 2208: “Fundamentals of Physics II” final exam, scheduled for Sunday evening, when Canvas went down.
“Right now, I don't have any resources outside of Canvas and things that I've downloaded to practice and prepare for [the exam],” Khan said. “I’m definitely stressed, because if I can't access the notes, I don't know how to study properly,” Khan said.
Khan also expressed concern that his personal information could be included in the breach.
“There's personal information like your name, your birthday, your address and your affiliation to your university,” Khan said. “So I think students and I are kind of concerned about what exactly can be linked by this breach.”
Shees Siddiqy ’29 and Labib Aziz ’27 were studying in Olin Library and took the Canvas outage as an opportunity to take a study break and play a game of cards in Amit Bhatia Libe Café.
“I have a final on Monday, but all my notes are on Canvas, so I'm just waiting for it to come back up, and then I'm going to lock back in,” Siddiqy said.
For some students like Siddiqy, the outage has prevented them from submitting final assignments and projects.
“Hopefully it doesn't take more than an hour or two,” Siddiqy told The Sun, adding that, ‘if it takes the whole day, I still have an assignment due for a final project today, so I have to email my teacher tonight.”
Some professors have already started addressing the shutdown, including EAS 1700: “Evolution of the Earth and Life” Prof. Robert M. Ross, mechanical and aerospace engineering, who in an email to his class obtained by The Sun, extended the deadline for a term paper to Friday.
“If there are still issues tomorrow evening, we'll come up with another plan,” Ross’ email to students stated. “If Canvas doesn't come back to life in the next couple days, that will have other implications, and we'll come up with new paths ? [sic].”
The University has not explained how, or if, the shutdown will affect students' final exam schedules.
Zeinab Faraj is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences and a senior editor on the 144th Editorial Board. She was a features editor and assistant sports editor on the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.
Sofia Loayza is in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at sloayza@cornellsun.com.
