Notice of Third Party Incident
On May 1, 2026, Ohio University was made aware of a cybersecurity incident affecting one of our third-party vendors Instructure; the company that operates Canvas, the University’s preferred learning management system. This incident was not directed at Ohio University directly, as we are just one of the victims as part of a larger data breach. Instructure serves thousands of institutions worldwide, and this is a vendor-level event that impacts multiple institutions. Canvas continues to operate normally.
What Happened
Instructure is a third-party service provider that operates the Canvas platform, the University’s preferred learning management system, and they recently experienced a cybersecurity incident. On April 29, 2026, Instructure detected unauthorized activity in Canvas, by a threat actor known for large-scale attacks across multiple sectors, including technology and education. Instructure informed the University that it revoked the unauthorized party’s access, started an investigation, and engaged outside forensic experts. On May 1, 2026, Instructure notified the University that it had experienced a cybersecurity incident and the University’s data was impacted. Instructure reported a second security incident on May 7, 2026, related to a Canvas vulnerability. Although unauthorized activity occurred within the vendor environment, Instructure promptly contained the issue, and the University is not aware of any impact to our users because of this secondary incident.
For the latest official information from Instructure, visit their Security Incident Update and FAQs webpage.
What Ohio University Is Doing
Our IT team is actively monitoring the incident and working directly with Instructure to determine the specifics around information accessed and the related impacts to the Ohio University community.
What You Should Do
- Watch for phishing emails. Do not click links in unsolicited emails claiming to be from Canvas, Instructure, or OHIO IT. Visit the Phishbowl to review phishing messages that are actively impacting the OHIO Community.
- Access Canvas directly. Always log in to Canvas using official links on www.ohio.edu typing https://canvas.ohio.edu directly into your browser.
- Report anything suspicious to the IT Help Desk at help.ohio.edu or 740-593-1222.
- Visit the Infrastructure's FAQ to learn and understand more about the incident.