WACO/COLLEGE STATION (KXXV) — Canvas, the widely used learning management platform, is currently unavailable university-wide at Baylor, Texas A&M and other universities across the country after Instructure took the system offline May 7, 2026.
The outage follows reports from multiple universities that their access to Canvas was blocked by a ransom notice. Instructure took Canvas offline in response. As of 5:22 p.m. on May 7, users should not attempt to engage with or respond within the Canvas system until further notice.
Baylor and Texas A&M teams are actively monitoring the situation and working with the vendor toward resolution. For Baylor, Updates are available at systemstatus.baylor.edu.
The outage comes after Baylor ITS was notified on May 6, 2026, of a data breach at Instructure. Canvas supports learning at 41% of higher education institutions in North America. The breach impacted Baylor's data stored on Instructure's servers, along with data from an undetermined number of other higher education customers.
Universities are advising students and staff to:
- Beware of suspicious messages. Do not click links in unsolicited messages claiming to be
from Canvas or Instructure - Access Canvas and other websites directly. Avoid clicking links whenever possible to
- access online resources.
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