DETROIT (WXYZ) — A ransomware group called "Shiny Hunters" is claiming responsibility for a nationwide hack targeting Canvas, a widely used online learning platform, disrupting students and faculty at colleges and universities across the country.
The group's message says those affected can contact Shiny Hunters to negotiate a settlement, and that all data will be leaked if no agreement is reached by the end of May 12, 2026.
Students at Wayne State University and Macomb Community College received emails Thursday notifying them that Canvas was temporarily unavailable. The outage is hitting at a critical time, as many students are in the middle of finals.
Sumaiyah Khan, a senior at Wayne State University, said the news was alarming.
"I can imagine the panic," Khan said.
Khan said she typically keeps backups of her work, but noted some assignments could still be lost.
"Typically, yes. But sometimes if we do a text box entry, it could completely vanish," Khan said.
Professor Leon DuPree, an information security expert with Eastern Michigan University, said the attack is impacting schools all over the country. He advised institutions to maintain backups and use additional security measures, such as biometric authentication, to protect accounts.
"When you're talking about a cloud-based system being compromised like that, is going to be making sure that you've got multi-factor identification in place and removing identification and user IDs that you don't need anymore," DuPree said.
Professor Tom Holt with Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice said he believes the attack is more about disruption than the value of the data itself.
"That's a ton of material to sift through. It's unlikely that there's going to be a lot of immediate value in terms of intellectual property, but there are a lot of downside risks in terms of the loss of time and resources for those who use it," Holt said.
By Thursday evening, Canvas reported it was back online. Many students and faculty are now wondering whether their personal information will still be leaked.
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