ProCircular

08/10/2026

DEFCON Hacking Conference took an hour long class on how false images are produced, the artifacts they tend to create and how to spot them. We reviewed in great detail software built to do the same, and its techniques with a number of 20+ year experts. In the next room they ran a training application they use to identify real or false images, 50 at a time back to back. I was ready….

Fail

It’s going to take a lot of coordination, ingenuity, and collaboration to make sense of this new world.

06/29/2026

🌟 Exciting conversations are taking place at the Mackinac roundtable on Talent, where over 100 private college presidents are gathering to discuss the future of education!

As we explore how students and faculty are utilizing AI, we’re also focusing on essential strategies to better protect our institutions. At ProCircular, we believe in empowering educational leaders to thrive in this evolving landscape.

Join us in shaping the future of academia with confidence! Together, we can navigate the challenges ahead and ensure our colleges remain safe and innovative.

05/21/2026

Press Release:

Canvas is one vendor. Your SaaS risk isn't. Prepare for next time...
A new fixed-scope assessment of your Canvas exposure and the plan behind it.

Press Release here:
https://hubs.li/Q04hlY8W0

You don't have to be a ProCircular client to engage us, nor do you have to be on the ShinyHunters list of affected schools. You only have to recognize that if this happened with Canvas, the rest of your SaaS stack deserves the same scrutiny.

Reach out [email protected] to find out mor

Standardized engagement helps institutions validate their response against FERPA, GLBA Safeguards Rule, state student-privacy statutes, and HIPAA as applicable

05/20/2026

Canvas is one vendor. Your SaaS risk isn't. Prepare for next time...
A new fixed-scope assessment of your Canvas exposure and the plan behind it.

The Canvas breach got your attention. The lesson isn't really about Canvas. Every SaaS platform your institution runs, your LMS, your SIS, your payment and research tools, carries the same accumulated risk Canvas did. Developer keys, third-party integrations, webhook subscriptions, and federated SSO grants, authorized over the years and rarely reviewed since. Canvas didn't create that exposure. It just made one instance of it impossible to ignore.

ProCircular has opened the Canvas After-Action Assessment, a new, fixed-scope, time-bound engagement built alongside a Big Ten university in response to the incident in real time. It reconstructs what data actually flowed through Canvas at your institution, which notification obligations apply, and what a clear 90-day plan looks like. Six work streams, findings mapped to NIST CSF 2.0 and HECVAT 4.0, deliverables your auditors and insurance carrier can use without translation.

Press Release here:
https://hubs.li/Q04hl-yt0

You don't have to be a ProCircular client to engage us, nor do you have to be on the ShinyHunters list of affected schools. You only have to recognize that if this happened with Canvas, the rest of your SaaS stack deserves the same scrutiny.

Reach out [email protected] to find out more!

05/15/2026

The Canvas security incident was a wake-up call for institutions everywhere.

Our team responded quickly, hosting a live webinar to break down exactly what happened, what it means for organizations relying on third-party platforms, and the steps you can take to strengthen your cybersecurity posture before the next incident makes headlines.

The recording is now available on demand: https://hubs.li/Q04gPbPT0

You'll hear from ProCircular's cybersecurity experts on:
- What the Canvas incident revealed about third-party risk
- What higher ed and data-sensitive organizations should be doing right now
- Actionable steps to improve your security readiness today

Whether you attended live or are just hearing about this now, it's worth your team's time.

Missed the Canvas Webinar? Discover the full recording now to access expert cybersecurity insights and enhance your security readiness with ProCircular.

05/14/2026

The Post-Canvas Breach Field Briefing. - today at 1pm. It's worth your time

News about the Canvas/Instructure data breach has been everywhere this week. It affects roughly 8,800 schools and universities, including K-12 districts and major universities nationwide.

If you're a superintendent, board member, trustee, or school leader thinking through what this means for your district or campus, this Thursday's free briefing is for you. ProCircular's Bradley Greer and Michael Johnson cover what's actually known, what it means for students and families, and the kinds of follow-on activity we typically see in the months after vendor breaches in education.

https://hubs.li/Q04grrfS0

05/13/2026

Canvas still on your mind?

Two cases worth studying alongside the Canvas incident: AT&T, which paid roughly $370K in 2024, and PowerSchool, which paid $2.85M in December 2024. In both, the data still surfaced.

The PowerSchool sequence is the closest analog to where Canvas customers are now. Five months after the original payment, individual districts started receiving direct emails containing authentic samples of their own data. Some were signed "ShinyHunters." It's the pattern worth planning around — the May 12 deadline is one moment in a longer arc.

Tomorrow at 1pm Central, ProCircular's Bradley Greer and Michael Johnson cover the six-action response sequence, the follow-on activity we're tracking, and where FERPA, the GLBA Safeguards Rule, and state student-privacy law actually apply.

Free. 60 minutes. Built for leaders making decisions over the next 90 days.

If you’re the person at your institution being asked what the Canvas breach means and what to do next, this briefing is built for you. On May 7, mid-finals week, ShinyHunters published a list of roughly 8,809 schools and universities and took Canvas offline. While Instructure has since paid the ra...

05/12/2026

Canvas - What Comes Next?

The Canvas Outage was a great example of third-party dependencies gone sideways. Higher Education carries a heavier cybersecurity load than most, while concurrently protecting students, faculty, researchers, and staff across thousands of vendor relationships, and serving as one of the most consistently targeted industries in the country.

The Canvas incident is the latest in a 24-month run of identity and OAuth compromises that share a pattern. Attackers have moved past code-level vulnerabilities. They're working through identity trust relationships, OAuth grants, and the SaaS integrations institutions authorized years ago. AppSec programs in higher ed are working through what the shift means for them.

This Thursday at 1pm Central, Jim Sherlock and Michael Johnson — the two ProCircular team members who built our Canvas After-Action Assessment — walk through what the breach tells us about third-party risk in education, where FERPA and the GLBA Safeguards Rule actually apply, and what a clear-eyed 90-day plan looks like.

If you want a plan for what's next, please join us!
https://hubs.ly/Q04gcWcj0

05/08/2026

Monitoring the Canvas Incident: We're working with the affected organizations and providing information as it becomes available.

Stay informed on the latest in information security with ProCircular’s insights. From ransomware recovery to AI risks, explore key topics to enhance your security.

05/07/2026

Shadow AI: The Risk Your Security Tools Can’t See

Discover the hidden risks of shadow AI in your organization and learn how to implement simple governance to protect sensitive data and enhance security.