Cyberattack shuts down Bruin Learn, targets thousands of schools
Shiny Hunters – a criminal extortion group – displays a message on the Canvas website. A cyberattack impacting Bruin Learn barred students from accessing the platform Thursday. (William Gauvin/Daily Bruin)
By Rune Long
May 7, 2026 2:06 p.m.
This post was updated May 7 at 2:43 p.m.
A cyberattack impacting Bruin Learn – as well as thousands of other schools which use Canvas – barred students from accessing the platform Thursday.
Bruin Learn was inaccessible as of 2:40 p.m, and the website said it was undergoing scheduled maintenance Thursday. Shiny Hunters – a criminal extortion group – claimed on the Canvas website around 1 p.m. to have stolen schools’ data.
The cybercrime group said on the website that Instructure – Canvas’s parent company – has until the end of May 12 to contact them before they release the information.
UCLA Media Relations referred The Bruin to a Thursday security advisory from the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer in response to a request for comment. Instructure is working to reach a resolution, according to the advisory.
Thomas Garbelotti, the director and chief information officer of Humanities Technology, said in an email to staff that he advises people not to try to access Bruin Learn, as it could give the hackers their personal information.
Past targets of the group have included Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
