A number of public schools and colleges across Virginia appear to be having issues with Canvas — an online tool used by education institutions — possibly in regards to a malicious data breach.
A message from the purported hackers, who call themselves "Shiny Hunters" — possibly a Pokemon reference — said: "If any of the schools in the affected list are interested in preventing the release of their data, please consult with a cyber advisory firm and contact us privately at TOX to negotiate a settlement. You have till the end of the day by 12 May 2026 before everything is leaked."
The message then had an attached list, which named a number of Virginia school systems:
- Virginia Beach City Public Schools
- Chesapeake Public Schools
- Mathews County Public Schools
- Isle of Wight County Public Schools
- Accomack County Public Schools
- Virginia's Community Colleges
- Old Dominion University
- Regent University
- Christopher Newport University
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- University of Virginia
- Virginia State University
- Eastern Virginia Medical School
- Hampton University
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Shortly after the message appeared for some Canvas users, the systems were inaccessible. A member of the News 3 team got the following error notification when they tried to log into their Canvas account:
News 3 has reached out to Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, and we are awaiting their response.
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