Canvas cyberattack hits Montana schools, colleges

MONTANA — Schools and colleges in Montana and across the country are dealing with a Canvas cyberattack that may have exposed student and educator information.

Reports say the breach has given access to names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages before it was contained.

Montana State University is directing users to the Canvas status page where Instructure posted a timeline of the outage. The company said Canvas, Canvas Beta and Canvas Test were placed in maintenance mode at 17:37 MDT on May 07, 2026.

The University of Montana posted a message for students and staff on its website as the outage continued:

Canvas is currently experiencing an unexpected service disruption. The UM IT team is investigating, although this issue appears to be affecting all of Canvas and is not limited to UM, and will share updates as more information becomes available. We recognize the importance of Canvas, especially at this time of year, and we appreciate your patience as we work to gather more information.

The university also shared guidance for students and faculty as finals approaches:

Students: Your professors/instructors will work on a plan to help you successfully complete the semester. Please be in communication with them, as needed. Faculty: Please check your UM email regarding the Canvas Outage for further guidance on finals. If you have an in-person final exam on Friday, May 8th, please attend it as planned.