May 08, 2026
Please note: This email is being sent to all Foothill-De Anza District Employees.
Dear Foothill-De Anza Community,
Following a thorough security review conducted by the Chancellor's Office, the CCC
Security Center, and our district security team, Canvas access has been restored.
What happened
The vulnerability behind yesterday's incident has been remediated. The "pay or leak"
message users received was an extortion attempt carried out through a class of external
"Free-for-Teacher" accounts, which have been shut down. Instructure has confirmed
that the attacker did not access core Canvas functionality and made no changes to
user data, grades, or course content.
Logging back in
Faculty and staff should log in through MyPortal as usual. Multi-factor authentication
(MFA) is required for all faculty and staff accounts. Please validate that your login
experience looks normal and report anything unusual.
Ongoing phishing risk — please read
While Canvas itself is now considered safe to use, the earlier incident did involve
exfiltration of some user data. That data may be used to craft targeted phishing emails
or social engineering attempts that reference Canvas. Please:
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Be skeptical of any unsolicited message referencing Canvas, your account, or personal information
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Do not click links, open attachments, or respond to messages that seem off
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Report suspicious emails or account activity at https://helpdesk.fhda.edu/
Thank you for your patience throughout this disruption.
Kindly,
Lee
Lee D. Lambert
Chancellor and CEO
12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022-4599
650.949.6100
650.941.1638 (fax)
Executive Assistant: Carla Maitland