WASHINGTON – A cyberattack on the Canvas learning management system left thousands of schools and universities offline Thursday, disrupting access to grades, assignments, course materials and lecture videos as students prepared for finals.

The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, according to the Associated Press. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, did not immediately respond to questions about whether the system was taken down as a precaution or knocked offline, the AP reported.

READ MORE: Canvas outage impacts thousands of schools, universities: Hacker group reportedly takes credit

The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed. Many school systems and universities in the Washington, D.C. region rely on Canvas as their primary learning management system.

In Montgomery County, school officials said access to the platform will remain unavailable “out of an abundance of caution” while they work to understand the impact of the incident and any potential vulnerabilities. Families were urged not to log in until MCPS and the myMCPS Classroom vendor resolve the issue.

The University of Maryland said it does not yet know when Canvas will return to service.

Canvas Cyberattack DC-Area School Systems Affected

Montgomery County Public Schools

Canvas (myMCPS Classroom) owned by Instructure Inc., is used by the school district as its learning management system. Due to a reported global cybersecurity concern involving Canvas, and impacting numerous school systems, universities, corporations in Maryland, other states, and worldwide, thus access to myMCPS Classroom has been disabled.

Out of an abundance of caution, access to the system will remain unavailable while we work to better understand the full impact of the incident and any potential vulnerabilities involving information connected to the platform. Please do not attempt to log in to the platform until MCPS and the myMCPS Classroom (Canvas) vendor have resolved this problem.

At this time, appropriate MCPS technology and security staff are continuing to assess the situation and coordinate with the vendor. We understand this disruption is frustrating and appreciate your patience as this work continues.

myMCPS Classroom provides access to student information such as grades, assignments, attendance, and course materials, and is an important tool for students and families to monitor academic progress. Additional information on how students can access resources and functions in myMCPS Classroom will be provided as soon as possible.

Updates will be shared as soon as additional information becomes available.

University of Maryland

Canvas may appear to be up right now, but please to not use it. DIT Security is not confident the system is safe to use right now. Please check back here before using Canvas.

For our faculty who use Canvas, we have created this guidance, and we will continue adding resources tomorrow. Please stay in touch with your students as we adapt to this evolving situation.

Prince George’s County Schools

There has been a cybersecurity incident involving Canvas, our Learning Management System.

Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, notified us of a global cybersecurity incident affecting 275 million users across numerous educational institutions. We have been informed that PGCPS was one of the many impacted organizations. While personal information including names, emails and Student IDs was impacted, NO sensitive  information, such as dates of birth, passwords, financial information, was involved. PGCPS does not store that type of sensitive information or parent information in Canvas.

We are using this as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of exercising caution when communicating by email and remaining vigilant regarding suspicious messages, spam, phishing attempts, or other potentially fraudulent communications. 

We will continue to monitor the situation and remain in close communication with Instructure.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools

Due to the ongoing issues with the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), AACPS will operate schools on Friday, May 8, 2026, without the use of the LMS. The Virtual Academy will also remain open with altered instructional delivery that will also not use the LMS. Further instructions will be communicated from the school principal. The latest information regarding the breach and the status of school district operations can be found at www.aacps.org/canvasbreach.

Prince William County Public Schools

We are aware of the error appearing when accessing Canvas and are actively working with the vendor to resolve it. The issue is not just impacting PWCS, and is widespread and national in scope. We will provide updates when the vendor has resolved the issue.

FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) – A South Florida organization has to come up with an alternative plan to fly several U.S. veterans to the nation’s capital after Spirit Airlines went out of business.

Honor Flight South Florida is a volunteer organization that helps veterans across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe Counties take a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit monuments and memorials built in their honor.

The next flight for veterans was scheduled to leave from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport through Spirit Airlines on May 30. Due to the airline’s shutdown, Honor Flight is now forced to adjust its plans.

Over the years, Honor Flight, along with Spirit Airlines, has helped send more than 2,000 veterans, including some who served during World War II and in Korea and Vietnam, to Washington, D.C.

“My dad has actually avoided going to Washington, D.C. since he served in the military, and it’s kind of been more of a dark part of his life,” said Blair Wallace, the daughter of a veteran.

Wallace’s father, Dan Gordon, served in the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1969.

“I just thought it was time to honor the veterans of Vietnam and give them the, you know, the honor and the grace that they deserve,” said Wallace.

Gordon and his brother-in-law, John Fisk, a fellow Vietnam veteran and Navy veteran, planned to take the Honor Flight on May 30. After learning that Spirit Airlines had ceased all operations, those plans are now in limbo, and the family was stunned.

“We were in shock,” said Wallace.

Ryan Paton, the co-founder of Honor Flight, said the airline had always been a strong supporter of their mission.

“Spirit’s been with us for about 12 years now I believe, and we did so much good in our community together that we were just always held out hope for them,” said Paton.

Volunteers for the organization had to break the news to veterans that their planned May 30 flight wasn’t happening.

“It’s like, they waited so long for this gift, and now we got to say, ‘You got to wait a little bit longer,’ so it’s – that’s the tough part of it, but we’re gonna make it up to them,” said Paton.

The unexpected setback stung many veterans who had been looking forward to the trip.

“My uncle John was really, really disheartened, you know, we’ve been waiting. We have submitted our information to Honor Flight over a year ago,” said Wallace. “They were emotionally ready to take that journey back in time to heal.”

As part of the trip, veterans would be treated to a police escort to the monuments and front-row seating during the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National Cemetery.

Honor Flight hopes to have all those measures in place to bring the trip veterans deserve over the next few months.

When they do eventually make the trip, their emotional return to South Florida will now be carried out without Spirit Airlines, a former constant on the journey.

“They lost their jobs, and that’s the big picture of this, and we’re gonna be OK,” said Paton.

Honor Flight told 7News they’ve spoken with other airlines and are confident they can reschedule this trip for sometime over the next few months.

Honor Flight makes these trips happen at no cost to veterans, with assistance from public donations.

For those interested in making a donation to Honor Flight, you can visit their website here.

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President Donald Trump’s proposal to put a coat of white paint on the exterior of a 19th-century historic landmark building next to the White House is slated for a hearing Thursday by a key federal agency he expects to approve what would be a dramatic makeover.

The proposed painting of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is one piece of a broader plan the Republican president has said will make Washington more beautiful.

Trump is making numerous changes inside and outside the White House and its grounds, most notably razing the East Wing to build a 1,000-person ballroom. Across the street from the mansion, Lafayette Park is closed for renovations that include getting the fountains working again.

The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to begin considering the plan on Thursday, according to its meeting agenda. Trump calls for painting all or most of the Eisenhower building’s gray granite exterior with white paint. He last year called the gray a “really bad color.”

Josh Fisher, a White House official, in April told the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts — a separate federal agency that also must approve the proposal — that the Trump administration prefers painting the entire building because the exterior is stained and in “great disrepair.”

The White House also presented an alternative proposal to paint most of the building in white while leaving the granite as is on the base.

Fisher said in April that experts consulted by the government could not guarantee that an exterior cleaning would improve the condition of the building.

But the proposal has alarmed preservationists, architects, historians and others who argue that granite is not meant to be painted and that paint would trap moisture, deteriorate the stone and not solve problems the administration wants to fix.

There’s also scant public support for the paint job.

Hundreds of pages of public comment submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission and available on the agency’s website were overwhelmingly against the plan on the grounds that the granite would be harmed by being painted and that problems would remain, at great expense to taxpayers. Others suggested improved landscaping, lighting and other steps to improve the building’s appearance.

Members of the Society of Architectural Historians sent a letter this week to Will Scharf, a top White House aide and chair of the planning commission, outlining why the project “will adversely and permanently alter this important part of American heritage and should be rejected.”

A report by the planning commission’s staff recommends that commissioners support cleaning the building but said more information is needed to evaluate the proposals to paint the exterior.

Staff also recommends asking the White House to provide information about the type of paint to be used, including where it has been successfully used on exterior granite facades in other projects. It also recommends the White House summarize other ways to achieve the goal, including cleaning the building and/or lighting.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A lawsuit against the proposed paint job is working its way through federal court.

The Eisenhower building sits across a driveway from the West Wing, and its granite, slate and cast iron exterior makes it one of America’s best examples of the French Second Empire style of architecture. It was the original home for the State, War and Navy departments, and it currently houses ceremonial offices for the vice president and offices for the second lady, the National Security Council and other White House components.

At its April meeting, the fine arts commission directed White House officials to return at a future date to present more information, including the results of paint testing.