Several East Tennessee schools affected by nationwide cybersecurity attack
Several East Tennessee schools affected by nationwide cybersecurity attack
Publish Date: 2026-05-08 14:06:00
Source Domain: www.wbir.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. A cybersecurity incident with the Canvas learning platform impacted several schools in the region, including the University of Tennessee and Maryville City Schools.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A cybersecurity attack on the Canvas learning platform is affecting schools and colleges nationwide, including several in East Tennessee.
Instructure, the company that runs the Canvas learning management system used by more than 7,000 universities, K-12 districts and education ministries worldwide, disclosed the breach to affected institutions this week. The company confirmed names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages between users had been accessed before the breach was contained.
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville confirmed it uses Canvas and sent the following message to faculty, staff and students on Thursday night:
Faculty, staff and students, We need to alert you that Instructure, Canvas’ parent company, has shut down Canvas nationwide due to a cybersecurity incident that has affected education institutions across the country.
We do not know when service will be restored. Instructure has posted a status page to share updates on the outage. We will follow up when Canvas is available. All faculty are urged to be flexible and compassionate with students during the Canvas outage, especially as we are entering exams. Please communicate with your students, reassure them, and keep them aware of any changes for your class. You can email your class via the Faculty Waitlist in Banner (through MyUTK > Top Links > Faculty/Advisors). We will send a non-emergency UTAlert when Canvas is online. We will also provide an update for students and faculty on Friday morning.
UT sent another alert on Friday morning, announcing that exams scheduled for that day would be postponed to Saturday, May 9.
Maryville City Schools also uses Canvas and provided the following statement, sent to parents Friday morning:
Dear Parents, Students, Staff, and Community Members,
We are aware of reports regarding a cybersecurity incident involving Canvas, the learning management system provided by Instructure and used by our district in grades 4-12.
At this time, information remains limited. According to publicly available reports, unauthorized activity temporarily affected Canvas services earlier today. We are actively monitoring updates from Instructure and reviewing any guidance they provide regarding the scope and impact of the incident.
Our technology team is:
* Monitoring official communications from Canvas/Instructure
* Reviewing available information related to the incident
* Assessing any potential impact to district accounts or services
* Coordinating appropriate response measures if additional action becomes necessary
* Participating in information sharing with the K12 Security Information Exchange.
As with any cybersecurity event, we encourage students, staff, and families to remain cautious of suspicious emails, messages, or links claiming to be related to Canvas or this incident.
If additional verified information becomes available, including any information directly affecting our district community, we will provide updates as appropriate.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to monitor the situation.
Greene County Schools said they were also impacted by the attack. Director of Schools Chris Malone provided 10News with the following statement:
Instructure is the vendor which provides our school system with Canvas. At this time, Instructure has not provided us with information about which data associated with our district’s account was involved, or the specific nature of any impacted information.
We have also not been advised by Instructure to take any action related to Canvas. But, for a time on May 7th, Instructure took Canvas offline. As of this morning though, the system was back up and operational.
We are continuing to monitor this situation as more information comes in from Instructure, and we will be keeping our employees and parents updated as well regarding the same.
Knox County Schools sent an alert to families and staff on Thursday. You can read the full statement below:
We want to make you aware of a recent cybersecurity incident involving the vendor who manages the Canvas platform. Users may have seen an unauthorized message upon logging in. While we understand this may cause concern, please know that there is no additional action needed at this time.
Our Technology Department is actively working with Instructure, the Canvas platform vendor, and has already removed the message.
We are not the only district that has been impacted. Cybersecurity incidents like this have become increasingly common across organizations of all types, including school systems, businesses, and government agencies. While no system can ever be completely immune from bad actors, we take the protection of information and systems seriously and have established protocols in place to respond quickly when concerns arise.
If additional information or action is needed, we will communicate directly with individuals.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue this work.
