A new analysis of the Instructure Canvas incident highlights what colleges must do when cybersecurity accountability extends beyond campus systems. The core warning: learning management platforms are not just vendor tools but repositories of institutional memory, including course materials, student communications, advising records, accommodations-related exchanges, and operational logs. The piece argues that a vendor-managed LMS creates “distributed digital liability,” because integrations with third-party applications expand the institution’s risk surface. When a vendor incident occurs, universities may still face governance obligations, data retention questions, and broader compliance concerns even if the underlying breach originated offsite. For higher education leaders, the practical takeaway is the need to know what data has accumulated inside LMS environments, what remains accessible, and what is retained or duplicated across connected tools. With LMS ecosystems continuing to evolve “organically,” the report frames cybersecurity planning as an institutional governance issue, not solely an IT vendor matter.