A known cybercrime group, ShinyHunters, hacked ASU's Canvas network Thursday morning during the University' Final Exam Week. Since then, the Canvas site has been inaccessible for site users, including students and faculty.
When the group first crashed Canvas, upon logging onto the website, some users were met with a notice from ShinyHunters asking for a ransom from all of the schools affected, as payment to prevent data from being released.
"If any of the schools in the affected list are interested in preventing the release of their data, please consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact us privately at TOX to negotiate a settlement," ShinyHunters' written notice said. "You have till the end of the day by 12 May 2026 before everything is leaked."
According to a list from the ShinyHunters Data Leak Site, thousands of schools' Canvas accounts have been affected by the hackers, including ASU, NAU, the University of Arizona Global Campus and several more Arizona-based schools.
In a written statement, a University spokesperson confirmed the school is aware that Canvas has been affected by an incident resulting in site users either being redirected or losing access to the platform.
"This incident is unrelated to any ASU-managed system," a University spokesperson stated. "The university is looking into the extent to which any data has been compromised and is working with students and faculty to circumvent this disruption in the closing days of the semester."
ShinyHunters' initial notice stated that Instructure, the education website responsible for developing the Canvas network, has until Tuesday to contact them.
"ShinyHunters has breached Instructure (again)," the written notice stated. "Instead of contacting us to resolve it they ignored us and did some 'security patches.'"
On May 1, Instructure released a statement confirming a security threat to the site and announcing its investigation. By May 6, Instructure updated its statement, marking the threat as "resolved."
Instructure has not responded to The State Press' request for comment.
As of May 7, at around 6 p.m. MST, when logging onto Canvas, users were met with a page claiming the site is going through scheduled maintenance.
According to ASU Enterprise Technology, ASU is working with faculty to identify course-specific next steps. They recommend that students check their inboxes through MyASU, or refer to their website, for updates.
This story is developing and may be updated.
Edited by Alan Deutschendorf, Natalia Jarrett, Senna James and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at ehprest1@asu.edu and follow @ellis_reports on X.
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Ellis is one of the Digital Producers at The State Press, where she publishes stories and works with the engagement team. Ellis has previously worked at The Arizona Capitol Times as a reporting intern and currently works at Arizona PBS as an assistant in the marketing department. This is her fourth semester with the The State Press, where she previously worked as a politics reporter.
