Vanderbilt University (VU) officials urged students and faculty to disconnect their devices from school Wi-Fi after a likely ransomware attack hit the institution on Monday, according to both local news stations and the student paper. Attackers claim to have stolen data on over a million individuals associated with the university.
“Everyone is following VU protocols and waiting for further instruction,” Dean of the Blair School of Music Melissa Rose told students in a statement shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time, according to The Vanderbilt Hustler (no relation to the other Hustler). “VUIT is working on it. For now, we are simply asking everyone to stay off the network entirely until we know more.”
“DO NOT attempt to investigate, troubleshoot, or resolve the issue yourself,” VU officials wrote in another notification, per Axios. “SHUT DOWN YOUR DEVICE IMMEDIATELY to help prevent potential further security risks.”
According to the Hustler, the university also dispatched IT staff to warn faculty to shut down their computers. The paper reported that the university also urged users to close all instances of Microsoft Word documents and/or OneDrive and Dropbox folders.
Students using university-issued devices reported their device desktops suddenly filling with copies of the attackers’ readme file, as well as popups. byod” format, while another told the newsweekly that their research hosted on university systems was inaccessible, and they had to pivot to personal backups.
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