Vanderbilt Hackers Leave Message On Campus Screens With Claim That Hits Close To Home

Vanderbilt University told employees to shut down university devices and disconnect from Wi-Fi on Monday as it responded to an active cybersecurity attack.

Vanderbilt Athletics received an alert just after 10 a.m, and the university sent a memo to all staff at 11:26 a.m.

“We are currently responding to an active cybersecurity incident that may impact university devices, systems and cloud-based services,” the memo said. “Our information technology team is actively investigating and working to contain the situation.”

The university asked all employees to turn off any university-issued devices and remain vigilant for suspicious activity.

Some employees also reported hearing a recorded message on their devices.

“Make the right choice or rot with the wrong one,” a voice said in a message received by some Vanderbilt staff members, according to a source.

Laurie Woods, a criminology professor, told the university’s newspaper, The Vanderbilt Hustler, that the voice message played during her class.

“I received the message on the computer with about 40 documents that said ‘Read Me’ and a verbal message, both of which I shared with students,” Woods told The Hustler. “It is out of our control, so all we can do is make the best of it. On the other hand, it reminds us of the power of internet and AI.”

Students were urged to continue attending classes despite the disruption. Some services were unavailable, including access to tickets for the Commodores’ upcoming game against the University of Alabama.

The ransomware group BYOD appeared to claim to be behind this attack, per the Nashville Banner.

The same group also claimed responsibility for recent cyberattacks on Michigan State University and the University of New Mexico Health System.

In a message about Vanderbilt, BYOD claimed it had obtained university research data, student and employee records, and more than 1 million Social Security numbers, The Hustler reported. The newspaper said it had not confirmed those claims.

Vanderbilt University officials told the staff to watch out for other signs of an attack and act immediately if something suspicious occurs on a device. The list of suspicious activity the university listed includes:

• Unexpected pop-ups, warnings or security notifications
• Unusual changes to files, folders or permissions in OneDrive, Box or other cloud storage platforms
• Files that have been unexpectedly moved, deleted, renamed or modified
• Unfamiliar applications, messages, or prompts appearing on your device
• Unexpected requests to enter passwords, approve authentication requests, or provide login credentials
• Any other unexpected or unusual behavior on your device

The extent of any data theft remained unclear.

Vanderbilt University has 14,000 students and more than 7,000 faculty and staff members.

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