Is Our Online Data Really Safe?

On May 7, 2026, the educational technology company, Instructure, was hacked. Instructure owns Canvas, a platform used by schools across the world for education purposes, such as course grades and assignments. The cyberattack left millions of students unable to access the platform.

ShinyHunters, the group that claimed to be behind the breach, demanded that a ransom agreement be made, or else they would leak the stolen data, which included students’ emails and messages. According to Instructure, ShinyHunters was able to hack their software by exploiting a security breach through their Free for Teachers platform.

Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, described ShinyHunters as a “a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.”

Society has become almost totally reliant on technology to store vital information which means our online data is even more susceptible to cyberattacks.

ShinyHunters isn’t the only hacking group out there, but the group alone has been associated with a number of notable data breaches in recent years. Many platforms were used by students and younger generations in general, such as Wattpad, SoundCloud, and even Mathway, a platform students use to solve algebraic equations.

They haven’t only targeted educational or social platforms. In 2024, the website Ticketmaster and its parent company LiveNation were victims of a data breach by ShinyHunters, who claimed to have stolen the data such as the names and addresses of over 560 million customers. In recent years, ShinyHunters has also gained access to user information from companies such as AT&T Wireless, Google, and LVMH.

The breach at Canvas has raised concerns across the board about how safe our information really is online, especially from students affected by the hacking.

A Liberty University graduate student said it wasn’t just Canvas that was down for her school. “I was trying to sign up for classes, and I needed a form to fill out, so I went to look for the form, and it wasn't showing up.” She was concerned about being able to turn in the rest of her assignments on time. She said, “Honestly, at that point I was annoyed. I need to do my assignments, and I don't get any extensions." she said. Luckily, one professor was lenient. “Because of [Canvas] being down, one of my professors did put an extension on the assignment!”

"We're secure until all the technology goes down.” she added. “It's not security, it's a crutch, and I think you realize that when you don't have it."

A Lenoir-Rhyne University senior said he found out Canvas was down after attempting to check his grades. “I check Canvas a lot,” he said. “All my assignments and things were turned in already, and I was getting updates about grades in Outlook, but I could not check what the grades were.” He remarked on how much harm can come from even one cyberattack. "One hacking, one malware attack, can shut down thousands of schools,” he continued. “It's kind of ridiculous how that can happen."

When asked about how safe our information really is, he said, "It's not secure at all, it's very fragile, and I also think it just goes to show that putting all of our eggs in one basket is very dangerous.”

Could TMZ Bring Accountability to American Politics?

TMZ is branching out from the Hollywood Hills to Capitol Hill.

On March 26, 2026, they put out a open call for pictures to be taken of politicians spotted out over Easter weekend, and it could be just the thing to bring more accountability to American politics.

You might be thinking, really? TMZ and accountability?

To understand how TMZ can be effective, you have to understand the United States, its elections, and its relationship with the media.

In the United States, we elect politicians to represent us in government. Elections are just one way the law allows us to replace the leaders we feel aren’t representing us well or making the changes we want to see. If politicians want to be elected or re-elected, they have to do what we, the people, elect them to do. Not only that, but they have to win over the American people, so it matters how they are perceived. This is where the media comes into play.

Think of it as filmmaking v.s. Hollywood: Filmmaking is the actual act of making movies, and Hollywood is about image and perception. If people actually like you (actor, director, etc), they’re more likely to support your work (Film, TV, etc).

When it comes to government, I like to think of it as public service v.s. “politics.”

Public service is the actual boots on the ground work, like drafting legislation. Whereas a big part of “politics” is playing the game of perception. Hence, campaign tours, doing interviews, etc. 

Political campaign tours basically run on the same principle as Hollywood press tours. Perception and likability are key!

Throughout American history, politics and the media have gone hand in hand. From political cartoons, radio interviews, images in newspapers, to televised presidential debates, television commercials, and now social media. Politicians have always relied heavily on the media to get their message across to the public.

With social media being even more crucial in election results over the last ten years, we’ve seen politicians becoming even more and more visible and accessible to the public, where before they may have been harder to reach. Ironically, visibility doesn’t solve a lack of transparency. Just because we’re seeing politicians on our feeds more, doesn’t mean they’re being more honest.

Currently, there is a lack of transparency between the American people and the officials we have elected to represent us.

Politicians benefit from the tax dollars we pay, but they aren’t following through or being truthful. 

Let’s go back to the Hollywood and politics analogy.

For the most part, actors or other celebrities will say whatever they need to say to the public for a plethora of reasons, whether it be promoting a movie or avoiding scandals. It’s the same for politicians.

That is why TMZ may be the answer. The way TMZ and other paparazzi and tabloids pry into the lives of celebrities without second thought or abandon could be exactly the aggressive journalism America needs right now.

Think about it: America is being run not just by a businessman, but a media mogul. His presidency so far has been like a reality show, and many of the people in his cabinet are from the media world. There’s Dr. Oz, a physician and television host, who currently serves as the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Linda E. McMahon, co-founder and former CEO of the WWE, serves as the U.S. Secretary of Education. 

What better way to combat this style of leadership than with the very thing all people in the media try to avoid? The paps!

So here comes TMZ, a tabloid company that is notorious for prying into the personal lives of the rich and famous, often releasing photos and information that is downright intrusive and sometimes evil. They promise that if people send them photos of politicians on vacation, they will help demand accountability.

In a time of cellphones and technology like Meta glasses, there is a general lack of privacy that previous generations didn’t have to face, where at any moment someone could be recording you, and you would never know it.

Everyone is a paparazzi now; all anyone needs is a recording device and a little bit of nosiness. People even go as far as to record strangers! It’s no longer just celebrities who are concerned with being photographed during their off time, but everyday people.

By calling for people to send in pictures of politicians on vacation, TMZ is tapping into a gold mine! Essentially allowing people to channel the power of surveillance into holding their elected officials accountable. It would seem that the paps might be obsolete when everyone can take a photo or record a video, but TMZ has found a way around it, a way to funnel all that media attention back through themselves.

And they found the perfect timing: amidst last month's government shutdowns, T.S.A. agents working with no pay, and waiting for Congress to make a decision, while members of Congress take two-week vacations, during which many will travel by plane. 

The hypocrisy is hard to miss.

Since the current political landscape looks like a reality show, with members of the administration being fired like a Survivor elimination, who better than TMZ to step up to the plate to hold them accountable?

TMZ created an avenue for the people’s frustration to become motivation, and for that motivation to become an actionable step. It’s honestly genius.

In a way, it taps into the very heart of the American experiment, the idea that, if we the people don’t like how our leaders are acting, we can do something about it.

Time will tell how much this will change things, but in a rapidly changing, image-obsessed political landscape, it might be the perfect start.

From Novels to the Silver Screen: AI and the Future of Creativity

At first, AI couldn’t generate images that were realistic enough to be taken seriously. Now it can make images and videos of people that look more real by the day.

Before, you could barely generate a picture of Zendaya, but now, you can make an image of Zendaya getting married, and people will actually fall for it!

AI has slowly but surely infiltrated creative spaces. Almost every day, there’s a new example.

Recently, the U.S. release of the horror novel Shy Girl by Mia Ballard was cancelled and discontinued in the U.K after the author was suspected of using AI to write it. The author said that she didn’t use AI to write the book (which was originally self-published), but that her editor used AI to edit the version published with Hachette Book Group without telling her.

There’s Matthew McConaughey, who signed with ElevenLabs to create a Spanish-language version of his newsletter using their AI technology. Darren Aronofsky released a short-form Revolutionary War series called On This Day… 1776 that is entirely AI-generated, though it features real SAG-AFTRA voice actors.

Through AI, the late Val Kilmer’s likeness will be used in the 2026 film, As Deep as the Grave. He was unable to film this role due to illness, and will posthumously “star” in the film through an AI-generated performance, with permission from his estate and children.

Increasingly, AI-generated content is being used alongside human creativity and in conjunction with creative/artistic industries. But does AI truly belong in our creative spaces?

It doesn’t, and there’s a laundry list of reasons why.

It’s not just that data centers use billions of tons of water to run, or that it’s used to generate inappropriate images of people without their consent, or that they could be used to generate images of people doing criminal activities they never did.

AI has set a precedent that the human brain can’t be creative on its own. It’s creating learned helplessness.

Creativity is integral to who we are as human beings. In childhood, we play dress up and make believe, we create stories and dream up entire worlds. But AI cannot create from scratch; it can only take what already exists in the world or on the internet and repackage it.

In 2025, there was talk of legal action against OpenAI, whose image & video generation model Sora 2 was being used to generate images that replicated the animation style of Studio Ghibli films. The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), a Japanese organization that works to protect Japanese IP like Studio Ghibli, even requested that “its members’ content is not used for machine learning without their permission.” Though human beings will always make art, the virality of trends using AI-generated images and videos is undeniable and makes the future of art feel uncertain.

So far, the response to the use of AI in creative spaces is to set guidelines around its use.

Hachette’s decision to pull Shy Girl from shelves is just one example of a company taking a clear stance on AI, and they’re not the only ones. Recently, a New York Times critic was dropped after it was discovered he used AI to write a book review. Last June, more than 1,000 authors signed an open letter against the use of AI in publishing.

These decisions will set a precedent in how publishers and companies in general handle AI-generated content in creative spaces going forward.

There will never be a time again when AI-generated material won’t exist. The cat is indeed out of the bag, but we get to decide how far it goes.