Global Cyber Attack Disrupts Thousands Of Universities And Schools Across Multiple Countries

A large-scale cyber attack has disrupted operations at thousands of universities and schools across the United States, Canada, and Australia after hackers targeted Canvas, a widely used academic software platform.

The attack, which has been claimed by hacking group ShinyHunters, caused major outages and interruptions during a crucial end-of-semester period when many institutions were conducting examinations and coursework assessments.

Canvas, owned by educational technology company Instructure
, experienced widespread downtime earlier this week. Although the company later announced that the platform had been restored for most users, several universities continued reporting service disruptions.

The incident is believed to have affected nearly 9,000 educational institutions globally.

At Mississippi State University, officials postponed final examinations after students reported losing access to completed work. Students said ransom messages suddenly appeared on their screens shortly after submitting exam essays.

The message allegedly stated that ShinyHunters had breached Instructure and threatened to release stolen data unless a ransom was paid in bitcoin.

Students described confusion and panic inside examination halls as they initially feared their personal accounts had been compromised. University officials later advised students to ignore suspicious messages while efforts to contain the security breach continued.

In Australia, the University of Sydney informed students that Canvas was temporarily unavailable and warned against attempting to log into the system. The institution acknowledged that the outage had severely affected coursework submissions and examinations during a critical period of the academic calendar.

Several other institutions across North America also reported disruptions. Idaho State University cancelled some scheduled examinations, while Penn State University informed students that access to Canvas remained unavailable and that immediate restoration was unlikely.

In Canada, the University of British Columbia confirmed that the outage was linked to a cyber breach involving Instructure and advised users to log out of the platform immediately. The University of Toronto also reported being affected.

Meanwhile, universities in the United States, including University of California Los Angeles and University of Chicago, faced assignment submission problems and temporarily disabled sections of their Canvas services after suspected threats linked to the attack.

Students at affected institutions expressed concern not only about academic delays but also about the potential exposure of personal information. Some reported receiving suspicious emails and ransom demands linked to the breach.

Cybersecurity analysts said the attack appeared to involve extortion attempts, with hackers allegedly setting deadlines for ransom negotiations.

ShinyHunters has previously been associated with several major cyber incidents, including attacks targeting large corporations and organisations.

The incident has renewed concerns about the growing threat of cyber attacks on educational institutions and critical digital infrastructure. It also comes amid increasing debate in the United States over the need for stronger cybersecurity protections as artificial intelligence tools continue to evolve rapidly.

US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer recently urged the federal government to strengthen cyber defence systems to prevent future disruptions capable of affecting public services and livelihoods.