On May 7 a hacker group known as ShinyHunters hacked Canvas, an education platform by Instructure and made it inaccessible to Fresno City College students and thousands of other institutions. 

The group threatened to release personal data obtained from the security breach, including student names and ID numbers, emails and private messages sent over the platform, according to Reuters. 

ShinyHunters released a statement demanding affected schools to “negotiate a settlement” with the group to prevent the information from being released. 

The State Center Community College District stated, “there is no evidence that MyPortal or other SCCCD systems have been compromised” in an email sent to students on May 7.

Canvas was restored and considered “safe to resume use” by SCCCD in a statement on May 9. Students will be able to access Canvas early Monday, May 11, according to SCCCD.  

“As a precautionary measure, the District will wait until Monday morning before restoring access to Canvas,” the website states.

The website explained that access to Canvas will be suspended and cannot be accessed from students’ MyPortal page. 

“Due to statewide security issues with Canvas/Instructure, access to Canvas/Instructure is being temporarily suspended from MyPortal. Do not attempt to access via any bookmarks you may have saved,” the SCCCD website states.  

In response to the breach, SCCCD required students to reset their passwords on MyPortal. 

SCCCD also warns of possible malicious emails being sent to students. Students are advised to not open any links outside of SCCCD or Fresno City College association.

ShinyHunters is a hacking group that dates back to 2019. Notable hacks committed by the group include a breach of Tubi, Microsoft, AT&T Wireless, Pizza Hut Australia and Wattpad. 

In a post by ShinyHunters, the group stated the deadline to negotiate is May 12. As of May 11, SCCCD hasn’t made any statements about settlement.