RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) — Instructure, the company behind the online learning system Canvas, has reached a deal with hackers to delete data stolen in a cyberattack. The breach caused chaos for students, many in the middle of finals.
Instructure announced Monday (May 11) that it reached an agreement with the hackers, ShinyHunters, who had threatened to leak data from nearly 9,000 schools and 275 million individuals. The company received “digital confirmation” that the data was destroyed but acknowledged uncertainty about its complete erasure.
Instructure is working with experts to strengthen its systems and conduct a forensic analysis. Canvas access has now been restored for district users following the disruption connected to the Instructure cybersecurity incident.
In a message on the site of the Wake Count Public School System, it stated: Staff and students should once again be able to access Canvas through WakeID once they reboot their devices.
A number of schools districts across North Carolina, including the Wake County, had limited access to the platform as they evaluate security.
This isn’t the first time Tar Heel schools have been impacted by a data breach as there was another one less than a year ago.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) announced in early 2025 that a major data breach at vendor PowerSchool compromised sensitive personal information of students and staff across the state. The breach, stemming from a December 2024 incident, exposed names, social security numbers, and contact info, leading to extortion attempts by hackers in May 2025
The Associated Press contributed to this report