UI ICON down due to national cybersecurity issues

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Students across the University of Iowa campus experienced a disruption in their finals studying around 3 p.m. on May 7 as the software company administering the university’s curriculum homepage, Instructure, was hacked.
Upon trying to open ICON, known as Canvas outside of the UI, students were greeted with a message threatening to release the university’s data unless they negotiate a settlement by the end of the day on May 12.
The message claimed to be from a hacking organization named ShinyHunters, which first appeared in 2019. According to Vali Cyber, they conduct these cybersecurity breaches with the primary motivation of profit through extortion.

The UI’s Information Technology Services website statesICON is unavailable due to national cybersecurity breaches that are affecting universities across the country. In the statement, ITS claims to be actively monitoring the situation and in close contact with Canvas as the issue is being resolved.
UI ITS declined The Daily Iowan’s request for comment at the time of publication.
UI Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel and Associate Vice President and Chief Information Officer Brad Roher sent an email to students recognizing the complexity of the issue. They said additional guidance will be shared as the information becomes available.
“We recognize how disruptive this is, particularly as we approach the end of the semester, and we are working closely with faculty to ensure flexibility and continuity for our students,” the email read.

This breach came at a difficult time for students, with the week of May 11 marking the university’s final exam week. Many students worry the disruption will deter their studying and are concerned about when the shutdown will end.
A screenshot of the message displayed on University of Iowa students’ screens when trying to access ICON on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
Jersey Tostrup, a first-year UI student studying business administration, discovered the cybersecurity issue right when she was about to study.
“I had two hours scheduled to go through my natural disaster slides, and I can’t access any of it with ICON down,” Tostrup said.
So far, Tostrup said one of her professors has sent out an email with class materials, but she is still concerned about many of her grades in other classes.
“I feel like some professors or TAs might say, ‘Oh, you should’ve managed your time better and gotten it done before,’ but no one can plan for something like this,” Tostrup said.
For UI first-year journalism student Ayva Kemper frustration turned to fear.
“It’s kind of an unsettling situation. Just concerns of privacy, and not fully understanding what information they have access to and what they plan to do with that information,” Kemper said.
Kemper said all of her teachers have helped provide her class materials, but she has had to request them.
“All of my instructions are in ICON,” Kemper said. “I’ve had to take a lot of time to email professors for instruction sheets, which has taken away a lot of my work time.”
Kemper and Tostrup requested that the university speak about the incident and encourage professors to make instructions about upcoming assignments clear.
The school should have a mandated role that if an outage like this happens, it should be mandatory that professors email the students any materials,” Tostrup said.
Ariel Kolder contributed to this report.