Harvard Canvas Site Goes Down After University Listed in Instructure Breach


Harvard was among thousands of schools allegedly affected by a cybersecurity breach of Instructure, the parent company of Canvas. | By Kirstin E. Anderson

By Sebastian B. Connolly and Summer E. Rose, Crimson Staff Writers
2 hours ago

Harvard students lost access to Canvas on Thursday afternoon after the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters listed the University among thousands of schools allegedly affected by a breach of Instructure, Canvas’ parent company.

Canvas, which Harvard uses to host course websites, assignments, reading, and messages between students and instructors, remained accessible to Harvard affiliates through at least 2 p.m. Thursday.

Around 3:30 p.m., the site began redirecting to a message from ShinyHunters, a notorious cybercriminal group that claimed it had “breached Instructure” and posted a list of affected schools.

By around 4:20 p.m, the site had been updated to display a message that read, “Canvas is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Check back soon.” ... Both the Canvas mobile app and the web platform were inaccessible to Harvard users as of 4:30 p.m.

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