Vanderbilt Orders Device Shutdowns as BYOD Claims Data Theft

Vanderbilt University instructed students and employees to shut down university devices and disconnect from campus Wi-Fi while its IT team investigated and contained an active cyberattack. The Nashville university warned that campus devices and systems could be affected, provided no restoration timetable, and marked its IT status page as unreliable while it was being rebuilt.

The ransomware group BYOD listed Vanderbilt on its leak site and claimed to have locked university databases and stolen research data, student and employee records, and more than 1 million Social Security numbers. Vanderbilt had not confirmed those claims or attributed the attack, and the reported theft remains independently unverified. Vanderbilt Health, a legally and financially separate organization, said its IT systems were unaffected and patient care continued normally.