Fayette County Public Schools, UK affected by national cyberattack

Fayette County Public Schools and the University of Kentucky were affected by a nationwide cyberattack Thursday, officials from the schools said.

The New York Times reported that Canvas, a platform used by over 8,000 universities and K-12 schools for course websites, assignments and communication, shut down for several hours Thursday.

“A hacking group claimed responsibility for a data breach affecting the company that owns the platform, jeopardizing the personal data of millions of students and teachers,“ the Times said.

“ShinyHunters, the hacking group that claimed responsibility for the Instructure data breach, said it had accessed data from more than 275 million people across nearly 9,000 schools, according to a ransom letter on May 3 by Ransomware.live, which monitors ransomware groups,” the Times reported.

FCPS spokesperson Miranda Scully said Canvas is the learning management system used by Fayette students in grades 6-12.

Instructure, the company that provides Canvas, was experiencing a cybersecurity incident that affects school districts across the country, Scully said.

“As of 10 p.m. Thursday, Canvas and related services were unavailable.,” she said.

But shortly before 7 a.m. Friday Scully said the issues impacting Canvas had been resolved.

“FCPS continues to actively monitor the situation,” Scully said.

“We encourage staff and families to remain alert for phishing attempts or unexpected messages. If you receive suspicious emails, links, login prompts, or requests for information, please report them,” she said.

At FCPS “the company is investigating, but our FCPS internal network and systems are not involved. We don’t yet have confirmation that any of our students’ data has been accessed inappropriately by a third party,” Scully said.

University of Kentucky officials acknowledged the issue in a social media post Thursday evening.

“We are aware of a nationwide issue impacting access to Canvas and are actively investigating the situation,” UK said. “At this time, users may experience difficulty logging in or accessing course materials. “

Any student unable to complete a final or assignment due to the nationwide Canvas outage should reach out to their instructor or academic adviser for assistance, UK officials said.

This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 6:39 AM.