Lakota's Canvas Communication to Parents

The following message was shared with grades 3-12 parents and guardians, as well as Lakota staff. Please note, Canvas is not used in grades PK-2.

Dear Lakota Parents and Guardians of students in grades 3-12,

We are writing to inform you of a recent cybersecurity incident involving Canvas, our learning management system used in grades 3-12. Media reports indicate this incident impacted over 8,800 colleges, universities, schools and education organizations. 

Instructure, Canvas’s parent company, recently contacted Lakota stating, “On April 25, 2026, Instructure experienced a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor. We detected the attacker on April 29 and immediately revoked the access. On April 30, as the investigation expanded, we revoked additional suspicious access and addressed the underlying vulnerability. We have found no indicators of an ongoing threat.”

They went on to say, “We want to share that your organization has been impacted by a criminal threat actor who has obtained data associated with your account. Based on what we have found to date, the data involved appears to include personal information. At this time, we have found no indication that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information were involved.” 

Instructure further shared that, “While we continue actively investigating, thus far, indications are that the information involved consists of certain identifying information of users at affected institutions, such as names, email addresses and student ID numbers, as well as messages among users.”

Instructure stated that their “teams are working around the clock with outside forensics experts to gather the information you need to understand how this impacted your organization. Investigations of this nature take time to do properly, and we are committed to giving you accurate information as quickly as we are able.”

This morning, Instructure shared that last night's “scheduled maintenance,” which prevented access to Canvas, was part of Instructure’s response to this incident. Canvas access has since been restored.

For this and more information please visit Instructure’s “Incident Updates and FAQ” webpage.

At Lakota, we take data privacy very seriously. We are sharing this information with you from Instructure as part of our commitment to transparency and to keep you informed.  

Sincerely,

Ashley Whitely, Ed.D.
Superintendent