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Instructure strikes deal with hackers who breached it twice

Published

4 months ago

May 12, 2026

Preport

Instructure, the maker of the popular school information portal Canvas, said on Tuesday it has “reached an agreement” with the hackers who breached its systems twice, stole a huge amount of student and staff data, and disrupted thousands of schools that rely on the company’s software.

ShinyHunters, a financially motivated cybercrime group, took credit for the April 29 data breach, claiming to have stolen student and staff data, including the personal information, of a total 275 million people. The hackers said they had compromised Canvas, which nearly 9,000 schools use to manage their students’ data and coursework.

The hackers last week breached the company for a second time, defacing the Canvas login pages on school websites, as part of efforts to pressure the company into paying their ransom.

Instructure said on its incident page late on Monday that as part of the agreement, the hackers had provided evidence that the stolen data was destroyed, and that Canvas customers would not be extorted.

The company acknowledged that there is “never complete certainty” when negotiating with cybercriminals, but noted that customers should not have to engage with the hackers.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and Instructure did not say how much it paid the hackers. Instructure spokesperson Brian Watkins did not respond to a request for comment, or answer questions about the agreement when contacted on Tuesday.

In a post on its leak site, which TechCrunch has seen, ShinyHunters was threatening to publish the stolen data it stole from Instructure if the company did not pay their extortion demand.

As of Tuesday, the listing had been removed from the ShinyHunters’ page, indicating that a ransom may have been paid.

A representative from ShinyHunters told TechCrunch: “The data is deleted, gone. The company and it’s [sic] customers will not further be targeted or contacted for payment by us.”

It’s not clear why Instructure paid the hackers. Governments, including the United States, have long urged victims of cybercrime not to pay ransoms to hackers, as this helps cybercriminals profit from their attacks. Security researchers have argued that victims cannot trust the word of malicious hackers — some cybercriminals have been found holding on to stolen data despite saying they had deleted it so they could continue extorting their victims.

The hack on Instructure mirrors a cyberattack on PowerSchool, which was hit by a massive data breach affecting 70 million students and staff in 2024. PowerSchool, which also makes school information software, paid the hackers to return the stolen data, but several of its customers were later extorted by another crime group that showed data from the breach that had not been destroyed.

The FBI said in a statement last week that it was “aware” of the system disruption affecting schools and educational institutions around the United States. The notice did not name Canvas, but it did mention that victims should “not send payment or respond” to the demands of cybercriminals.

The data stolen from Instructure, some of which TechCrunch has seen, includes students’ names, their personal email addresses, and messages exchanged by teachers and students, including private and personal information.

On its website, Instructure acknowledged that hackers had breached the company’s systems twice in under a year, but said that the two breaches were “distinct events” that involved different systems.

Instructure said it was still investigating the breach and validating its findings.

It’s not clear who at Instructure oversees or is responsible for cybersecurity, if not the company’s chief executive, Steve Daly. When contacted by TechCrunch, Instructure would not say if Daly plans to resign following the data breaches.

Are you a Canvas administrator or school notified about the breach? Have you received an extortion demand from the hackers? We want to hear from you. To contact this reporter securely, reach out via Signal username zackwhittaker.1337.

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Related Topics:breached Deal Hackers Instructure strikes

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2027: ‘We’re ready for anything’ — ADC warns APC

Published

1 hour ago

September 13, 2026

Preport

The National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, has expressed confidence that the party will defeat the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2027 general elections if the polls are free and fair or not.

Abdullahi stated this during an interview on Symfoni TV while responding to questions on whether the ADC would be able to defeat the ruling APC in the 2027 election.

He said the party had no doubt that it would win a free and fair election, but expressed concerns over the possibility of electoral manipulation.

“In a free and fair election, we have no doubt in our minds that we will win this election. The challenge is, will there be a free and fair election?

Health

10,494 Nigerians in UK health sector as country battles health worker shortage

Published

1 hour ago

September 13, 2026

Preport

A total of 10,494 Nigerians are listed among staff in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), according to data shared by NHS Million, a UK campaign organisation focused on NHS staff.

Nigeria ranked sixth overall on the list, behind the UK/British, India, the Philippines, Ireland and Poland, making Nigeria the largest African nationality represented in the breakdown.

The data shared by NHS Million showed that more than 1.1 million NHS workers identified as British or UK nationals, while Indians accounted for 32,117 staff and Filipinos 25,423.

It also showed that Zimbabwe had the second-highest number of African nationals working in the NHS, with 4,780, followed by Ghana with 3,395, Egypt with 2,895 and South Africa with 1,829.

The figures highlight the significant contribution of Nigerian professionals to the UK health system, but also come amid persistent concerns over the shortage of health workers in the country.

Nigeria loses thousands of health workers

The 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report, released by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, showed that over 20,000 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year.

The figure included 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists and 274 dentists, among other health professionals. The report also showed that Nigeria has 95,456 registered doctors, but only 60,551 currently hold active practising licences.

The workforce shortage is further worsened by the uneven distribution of health professionals across the country, with several northern states recording particularly low doctor densities.

UK remains major destination

The United Kingdom is one of the major destinations for Nigerian health professionals.

Data from the UK’s General Medical Council showed that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026, according to a Punch report.

The data also showed that 15,896 Nigerian-trained doctors were licensed to practise in the UK.

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The 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report identified external migration as one of the factors affecting the availability of health professionals in Nigeria.

Migration policy yet to be fully implemented

The federal government has introduced several measures aimed at increasing the health workforce and addressing migration.

Nigeria also approved a National Policy on Health Workforce Migration in August 2024, aimed at managing health worker migration, improving retention and strengthening workforce planning.

However, the 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report said that although the implementation plan had been finalised, full implementation had not commenced.

The report said an additional 23,000 frontline health workers were trained in 2025, bringing the number trained between 2024 and 2025 to 78,146, or about 65 per cent of the national target of 120,000.

The policy is intended to improve working conditions, support career progression and establish a more coordinated approach to health worker migration and retention.