By: Kevin Modeszto | Publish Date: May 8th, 2026
At 11:19 p.m. on May 7, 2026, Kean University emailed the Kean community that Canvas services had been restored.
The breach by ShinyHunters, who were described by Luke Connolly to the Associated Press as “a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom,” appears to have been contained.
This breach was the latest in a back-and-forth between ShinyHunters and Instructure (the parent company of Canvas). On May 1, they threatened that they had data (names, ID numbers, private messages, and .edu emails) and would go a step further if their demands were not met. They were not met, so ShinyHunters hacked into Canvas on May 7.
In a statement to TIME, parent company Instructure stated that Canvas was taken down “out of an abundance of caution” to further investigate the latest breach. The outage only lasted about eight hours at Kean, but every minute at the end of the semester can be crucial.
Students and professors alike were left even more stressed than they typically would be during the final hours of the semester, which officially ended 40 minutes after Canvas’ restoration.
For sophomore Hajar Lababidi, the strike happened as she was about to sit for her Intro to Sustainability final.
“It was a shock to all of us,” Lababidi said. “We had to wait over an hour to get the printed versions of the exam.”
“To have this happen to us now in Canvas feels bizarre,” she continued. “To have it happen during finals week, where everyone is struggling with our last assignments and exams, it makes students furious.”
Not every class has a sit-down final exam, but most classes did still have assignments coming in, and all classes lost access to their gradebook.
“Normally I keep up with my grading, but everything (was) wiped out,” Kean professor Lydia Kaplan said. “I know who is and isn’t doing well, but that isn’t good enough.”
When interviewed, Kaplan put a large emphasis on the consequences of a long-term outage.
“My concern (was) that all the student’s work was obliterated. How do you grade? How do you handle grading or allowing students to graduate?”
For Kean senior Chris Hernandez, Kaplan’s hypothetical was real: His graduation was on the line. Hernandez had a final due the night of the outage, and with how that class’s grading was set up, failing that final meant he would be unable to walk on graduation day.
“I’ve been all over the place trying to contact my professors to see if I can get an extension,” Hernandez said. “It feels overwhelming that this is happening as graduation looms and these finals determine if I walk or not.”
Adjunct professor Legina Adams fell slightly behind on her grading and hopes to complete it this evening, but her biggest concern was with her students.
“I also recognize that situations like this can create stress and anxiety, especially when deadlines and exams are involved,” Adams announced in Canvas to her classes, “I want to assure you that no student will be penalized for lateness resulting from this technical issue, as it was clearly beyond your control.”
With Canvas returning to full working order, the final stretch of the semester can resume.
You must be logged in to post a comment.