A large-scale cyberattack has hit universities and schools in the United States, Canada, and Australia, causing major disruption during end-of-year exams. The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the attack, which disabled the widely used academic software Canvas, affecting an estimated 9,000 institutions. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said most users regained access by Thursday, though some universities continued to report outages on Friday.

Mississippi State University postponed final exams to allow students to recover lost work, while several others, including the University of Sydney, Penn State, and the University of British Columbia, reported severe interruptions. Students described seeing ransom messages demanding Bitcoin payments to prevent stolen data from being leaked. Universities advised students to avoid suspicious messages and awaited further guidance from Instructure.

Cybersecurity analyst Luke Connelly told the Associated Press that the threats began Sunday and were set to continue through May 12, with ransom negotiations possibly ongoing. The incident coincided with U.S. Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s call for stronger cyber defenses amid rising digital risks in the age of artificial intelligence.