Vanderbilt University was hit by a cyberattack. Heres what we know.

On November 9, a cyberattack struck Vanderbilt University, leaving about 40 files with the label "Read Me" and a spoken message popping up on a professor's screen during her class. The university promptly instructed students and staff to shut down their school-issued devices and disconnect from campus WiFi. As of Tuesday, Vanderbilt's IT team was working with government agencies to manage the situation, but it remains unclear how the university's IT team first detected the attack.

The cybercriminal group behind the attack, known as BYOD, claimed responsibility on a Vanderbilt computer, stating that they had stolen over 1 million Social Security numbers, student, and employee records. They threatened to release the stolen data unless Vanderbilt negotiated with them. However, Vanderbilt has not yet verified the group's claims.

Previously, on October 26, a similar ransomware attack targeted the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, affecting some staff and student devices but not its core systems or servers.

Despite the university's WiFi being restored by Monday evening, certain services, such as Brightspace and the YES student portal, were only partially recovered. Vanderbilt assured students that classes and student services would follow their usual Tuesday schedule. Several individuals reported losing access to research stored on Vanderbilt's systems and had to rely on personal backups. The extent of the exposed information and whether any data was compromised is still uncertain.