Canvas cybersecurity breach
Stay informed about the Canvas cybersecurity breach.
This page was last updated at noon on Wednesday 13 May 2026.
What's happened
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington was notified last week of a cybersecurity incident in which bad actors have obtained data held within our learning management system.
This incident related to data held in the cloud and used by Canvas, which is the software that runs Nuku. This was not a breach of our own university systems, and our other university systems continued operating as usual without issues.
We understand it is possible that names, email addresses and student ID numbers may have been disclosed. It is also possible that the content of messages exchanged in Nuku were included in the data.
Instructure, the company that operates Canvas (Nuku), has advised Victoria University and other clients that they have “reached an agreement with the unauthorised actor involved in this incident”. They say, “As part of that agreement, the data was returned to us, we received assurances that it will not be further shared on the dark web or elsewhere, and we received proof that any copies of that data were deleted.”
The information from Instructure can be found here: https://www.instructure.com/incident_update.
Teaching and learning
Your course coordinator will be in touch to give you clarity on changes for your courses, including any ongoing implications for teaching and learning this trimester.
Course coordinators will also make appropriate arrangements to ensure you are not impacted unfairly if you have missed assignment deadlines or have had less time to prepare for assessments as a result of Nuku being offline.
What you can do and where to get help
To protect yourself from phishing and other fraudulent online activity, the National Cybersecurity Centre has valuable information on protecting yourself:
Learn the three most useful things you can do to protect yourself online with information about cybersecurity basics on our website.
If you need wellbeing support, reach out to the Tauria—Student Interest and Conflict Resolution team on studentinterest@vuw.ac.nz.
VUWSA Advocacy Services are also able to support you.
For technical support or urgent questions, email the Service Desk at servicedesk@vuw.ac.nz.