Cyberattack on Canvas raises concerns at MoWest, finals to proceed as scheduled

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- With cybercriminals hacking Canvas on Thursday, Missouri Western State University Provost Jay Johnson said the situation was definitely concerning. 

One of the university’s biggest worries was how the outage could affect students taking final exams and tests. 

Another concern was the possibility of schools having to deal with ransom payments individually and what kind of impact that could have on the university. 

The hack came from the group "ShinyHunters" that left a "pay or leak" ransom note, saying it had accessed data from millions of users, including students, teachers and staff.

Johnson admitted that there’s frustration with technology, especially since issues like this continue to happen. 

"One of those things we have to put up with is a reality in 2026, in higher education, we lean on this technology, and this happens from time to time," Johnson said.

Despite the disruption, Johnson said the university will not move finals week.  

He also emphasized how students were not penalized for any downtime while Canvas was unavailable, adding that the university has systems in place to make sure students are taken care of. 

"We have summer classes starting Monday, and students have already looked at the schedules, and that was another concern I had, was to make sure all those summer classes were ready to go," Johnson said.

The website is back up now, and students have been able to get easy access to it to finish any last-minute assignments or tests.

Northwest Missouri State University and the University of Missouri- Columbia were among the list of Missouri colleges affected.

Canvas has more than 30 million active users globally and more than 8,000 institutions as customers, according to reporting from CNN.

The hacking affected thousands of schools and universities across the nation.