Vanderbilt University announced that it was hit by a cyberattack Monday. The school instructed students, faculty and staff to turn off any university connected devices, disconnect from campus Wi-Fi and to be on the lookout for any suspicious or unusual activity.
Vanderbilt Health, which operates as a separate legal and financial entity, stated that they were not impacted by the data breach.
The BYOD ransomware gang took credit for the attack, which they claimed to have netted over one million Social Security Numbers, as well as “Full Names [sic], Email addresses, Phone Numbers, Student & Employee Records,” and more.
“We have all of your data including your backups, your entire network is compromised,” claimed the group in an announcement on its website.
BYOD has also taken credit for an October cyberattack on the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.
Federal law enforcement and cybersecurity specialists are currently investigating the incident.
What You Should Do:
Regular users of Vanderbilt’s Wi-Fi network or who are present on campus should change their passwords and run a diagnostic scan on their devices to look for new or unfamiliar applications, or anything else out of the ordinary. Freezing or placing a lock on credit accounts and setting up credit monitoring can’t fully mitigate the risks involved with compromised Social Security numbers and personal data, but it can present a harder target for cybercriminals. Additionally, be careful about responding to phone calls, email or texts offering assistance to those exposed. If Vanderbilt offers any free monitoring or remediation services, always independently confirm that you are communicating with the actual credit bureau or identity theft services provider designated by the university.
