Harvard Canvas Site Goes Down After University Listed in Instructure Breach
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.
{snip}
Copyright © 2026 The Harvard Crimson, Inc.