The company behind the widely-used Canvas learning management software, Instructure, has admitted it came to an agreement with the cyber-extortion gang "Shiny Hunters" to prevent the leaking of 3.5 terabytes of hacked data following a large-scale hack attack that affected 9,000 educational institutions globally. Even with law enforcement agencies around the world advising against the payment of ransoms due to the lack of assurance that the information will be deleted permanently, the company decided to ensure the "peace of mind" of its users after the hacking incident led to disruptions during exams and showed ransom messages on the computers of students. However, although Instructure reports receiving digital proof that the information had been deleted, the hacking attempt, which is the third in less than a year, has forced universities in the US and UK to postpone their exams.