Posted Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Instructure, the creators of Canvas, announced they have closed last week’s security incident, which caused disruption to Canvas services and a limited user data breach. Instructure has received confirmation of data destruction (shred logs) after reaching an agreement with the cybercriminals to ensure the stolen data will not be released. Full details from Instructure.
Information Technology Service (ITS) has also concluded in its own investigation and confirmed:
- No George Mason accounts were compromised; therefore, passwords are not required to be reset
- No related applications were affected
- No related ransomware threat currently exists
ITS continues to carefully monitor all systems. As always, remain vigilant to all suspicious activity and review security best practices.
If you have any additional questions, IT Support is available anytime at 703-993-8870 or https://its.gmu.edu/chat.
Original Outage Bulletin
Thursday, May 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Dear Patriots,
Information Technology Services (ITS) is aware that Canvas, George Mason’s Learning Management System, is currently unavailable for all users. This outage is impacting many colleges and universities across the nation.
Instructure, our Canvas hosting partner, is working to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We are aware of the impact on final exams and other end-of semester activities, and we apologize for the inconvenience this outage is causing as we await further information from Instructure.
For updates regarding this outage, see https://status.instructure.com/incidents/m88d7ymwpzpy.
If you have any additional questions, IT Support is available anytime at 703-993-8870 or https://its.gmu.edu/chat.