‘Canvas is now available for most users’: Instructure places the learning platform in maintenance mode after outage disrupts schools nationwide

Instructure, the parent company and developer of Canvas, has placed the learning platform into maintenance mode after a reported cybersecurity incident disrupted access for users across multiple schools and universities. The cyber incident happened on May 7 after users reported being unable to access Canvas, a platform used by thousands of educational institutions for assignments, course materials, messaging, and online learning.

In a status page update posted at 17:37 MDT, the company said, “Instructure has placed Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test in maintenance mode. We anticipate being up soon, and will provide updates as soon as possible."

Later, the company said, “Canvas is now available for most users. Canvas Beta and Canvas Test remain in maintenance.”


The outage came after reports that some users were redirected to an unauthorized message allegedly linked to the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters.


Harvard University said, it's students began experiencing issues Thursday afternoon when Canvas pages briefly redirected to a message claiming ShinyHunters had “breached Instructure” and listing schools allegedly affected by the incident.

Around 4:20 p.m., the message was reportedly replaced with a notice saying, “Canvas is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Check back soon.”

Both the Canvas web platform and mobile app were reportedly inaccessible for some Harvard users during the disruption.

Earlier in the day, Instructure acknowledged login-related issues in separate status updates, stating, “We are currently investigating this issue.”

The company also noted, “Some users are having difficulties logging into Student ePortfolios”

It added, “This is not affecting customers.”

The disruption also sparked reactions online, including from Congressman Don Beyer, who posted on social media criticizing the FBI director,



The reported outage follows an earlier security incident acknowledged by Instructure on May 6.

In a previous update, the company said, “Canvas is fully operational, and we are not seeing any ongoing unauthorized activity.”

The company also advised customers to follow security precautions, including enforcing multi-factor authentication, reviewing admin access, and rotating API tokens or keys where applicable.