{"id":263254,"date":"2026-05-08T10:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263254\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:01:33","slug":"usf-and-hillsborough-county-schools-impacted-by-nationwide-data-breach-involving-canvas-learning-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263254\/","title":{"rendered":"USF and Hillsborough County Schools impacted by nationwide data breach involving Canvas learning platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instructure, the company that runs the Canvas learning management system, disclosed the breach to affected institutions this week.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A cybersecurity attack on the nation’s most widely used classroom software has potentially exposed the personal data of millions of students and educators across the country \u2014 including in the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n

Instructure, the company that runs the Canvas learning management system used by more than 7,000 universities, K-12 districts and education ministries worldwide, disclosed the breach to affected institutions this week. The company confirmed names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages between users had been accessed before the breach was contained.<\/p>\n


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\n USF, Pasco, Hillsborough schools impacted by data breach involving Canvas learning platform
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\n USF, Hillsborough County Schools impacted by nationwide data breach involving Canvas
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The University of South Florida (USF) acknowledged the cybersecurity incident on Thursday, saying Canvas temporarily cannot be accessed and it is working with Instructure and law enforcement to assess any specific impacts to university systems or data.<\/p>\n

“USF understands the inconvenience this causes for our students, faculty and staff, especially at the end of the semester,” the university wrote in a statement<\/a>. “We recognize that students are still taking final exams, makeup exams, or may still need to submit classwork through Canvas. Final grades are not due until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12. In the interim, USF is exploring alternatives for those affected and will share updates as they are available.”<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County Public Schools also alerted staff and families about the breach, saying it temporarily inactivated Canvas from all district devices.<\/p>\n

“We want to stress there is no indication of a new active threat, but we are taking this step to ensure the continued protection for student, family, and staff information,” the school wrote in an email sent out on Thursday. “We also strongly caution you not to access Canvas from a home or personal device or from the app.”<\/p>\n

The school district said it will provide students, staff and families updates as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n

Canvas is used by 41% of higher education institutions across North America to deliver courses. Millions of K-12 students rely on it as well. In North Carolina alone, the state Department of Public Instruction has used Canvas across all public K-12 schools since 2015.<\/p>\n

The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack. On a dark web leak site, the group alleged it had stolen more than 3.65 terabytes of data and threatened to release it unless its demands were met. The group said it stole roughly 275 million records tied to students, teachers and staff, and shared a list of 8,809 school districts, universities and online education platforms it claims were affected.<\/p>\n

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ShinyHunters warned that a failure to pay could result in the release of “several billions of private messages among students and teachers.” A ransom message on the platform appears to give Instructure until May 12 to respond before the hackers leak information.<\/p>\n

The company stated that the affected data might have included full names, email addresses, student ID numbers and messages, but that there is no evidence passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information were exposed.<\/p>\n

The sensitivity of Canvas messages compounds the concern. The platform is used by students to disclose medical and mental health information to academic advisers, to request accommodations and to communicate with Title IX advocates.<\/p>\n

Instructure said it has engaged outside forensic cybersecurity experts and law enforcement. The investigation is ongoing, and the full scope of the breach has not yet been determined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instructure, the company that runs the Canvas learning management system, disclosed the breach to affected institutions this week.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-263254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}