Nationwide Canvas Outage FAQ
Last updated 05/08/2026 3:05 p.m.
How did the University communicate with the community about the outage?
The university issued two UMD Alerts via text and email, one campuswide email, as well as two university website alert updates during the 19 hours that UMD’s access to ELMS-Canvas was unavailable. The updates were also shared on the university’s social media channels, the Division of IT website, and the TLTC website.
What resources were provided to faculty and instructors during the outage?
Initial guidance for faculty and instructors that addressed communicating with students, sharing materials, and collecting assignments during the ELMS-Canvas outage was provided the evening of May 7.
What guidance is there for the campus community after the outage?
Additional guidance for faculty and instructors for actions after the outage is available.
Was personal information compromised in the Canvas security incident?
Instructure, the company that operates the Canvas Enterprise Learning Management System (ELMS), has informed the University of Maryland that compromised information includes identifying details such as names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and private messages among users. Instructure’s ongoing investigation has found no indication that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information were involved. At UMD, these types of sensitive data are not typically stored in ELMS‑Canvas. Additional information is available on the Instructure FAQ page about this incident.
What resources were provided by Disability Services?
Faculty with ADS impacts were instructed to contact Accessibility and Disability Service (ADS) directly at adstest@umd.edu. ADS will work in collaboration with impacted faculty to adjust the format of their exam or other appropriate solutions. Students scheduled to complete final exams with ADS are expected to report to their testing location as listed in the Online Portal as originally scheduled. If there are any changes to the accommodated testing final exam schedule, ADS Testing staff will contact impacted students directly.
With the loss of Canvas access during portions of the last two days of classes, did the University consider adjusting the finals schedule?
We recognize the timing of the Canvas outage was extremely challenging, and it is critical that students and faculty have access to materials in preparation for final exams and assessments.
In typical years, the university assigns one Reading Day after the conclusion of classes and before final exams begin. However, due to this year’s academic calendar, Reading Day falls on a Saturday, and there are no exams scheduled until Monday. This atypical schedule provides our students with an extra day of study, on Sunday, to mitigate the hours lost during the Canvas outage.
What is the university doing to protect data security from future incidents?
DIT regularly works with our vendors and other institutions of higher education to share information and knowledge about cybersecurity threats. We also routinely contract with independent companies to conduct security testing of our systems. UMD also employs extensive backup procedures. For example, UMD downloads all data from Canvas on a daily basis to an archival server.
Was the Canvas outage related to the brief Wi-Fi outage around 4 p.m. on May 7?
No. UMD experienced an unrelated brief network disruption to the Wi-Fi and wired network due to a misconfigured switch. That outage is now resolved, and the Wi-Fi network is restored.
Are other systems integrated to Canvas like Panopto and Gradescope impacted?
No, none of these other systems were directly impacted. However, some of them use Canvas for login and users may be prompted to re-login or re-connect when accessing these platforms.
On Thursday, May 7, I saw a strange login page for Canvas and entered my user name and password. Was my password compromised?
The login page is an alternate one Canvas uses when some parts of the authentication system are down. UMD has no evidence your password was compromised. However, if you are concerned you may change your UMD password at password.umd.edu.
Were any UMD systems compromised as part of the incident?
No, the incident was contained in the Canvas platform which is operated by Instructure on behalf of UMD and their other 9,000 K-12 and university customers.
Did UMD pay a ransom to restore services or protect data?
No.
Is the slow delivery of UMD email related to the Canvas issue?
No, the slow email delivery on Friday, May 8 is the result of a separate problem on the systems operated by UMD’s SPAM filtering contractor.
Why were some people able to access Canvas starting the evening of Thursday, May 8 and others couldn’t log in until mid-morning on Friday, May 9?
When Canvas was brought back online, new logins were disabled. However, the Canvas platform apparently retained (or “cached”) information for some people who were already logged in when the system went down. UMD is still seeking further explanation from Instructure about why this happened.