Vanderbilt reacts to 'cybersecurity hacking incident': What to know
Vanderbilt University is responding to an "ongoing cybersecurity hacking incident," the school said on Tuesday, following a message asking students, faculty and staff to "shut down university devices" one day earlier.
The Nashville-based university first posted a message on Monday warning students, faculty and staff members that the school was "responding to an active cybersecurity incident that may impact university devices, systems, and cloud-based services."
The school said its information technology team was investigating the incident.
The message asked "members of the university community to shut down university devices, disconnect from university WiFi, and remain extremely vigilant."
The message urged university community members to watch out for suspicious activity on devices, including "unexpected pop-ups, warnings, or security notifications," unusual changes with "files, folders, or permissions" in cloud storage platforms like Box or OneDrive, modification deletion or renaming of files unexpectedly, "unfamiliar applications, messages, or prompts appearing on your device," or unexpected asks for passwords, authentication approval or credentials, as well as other strange behavior on devices.
The school warned against clicking on "links, pop-ups, attachments, or unfamiliar prompts," and asked community members to refrain from investigating the behavior themselves. The school asked them to contact IT on a separate device after shutting down the affected device.
In a Monday evening update, the school said campus Wi-Fi was available and noted the school's IT was working with government agencies and others to handle the incident.
The school said it would operate a normal schedule Tuesday.
By Tuesday morning, Vanderbilt released a third update saying the school was managing an "ongoing cybersecurity hacking incident."
The school provided a list of systems and applications that were available, along with Wi-Fi, including Okta, an identity authentication service; Vanderbilt email on Outlook; Brightspace, a course management system; Zoom; and enrollment services.
The school said community members can use personal accounts as needed, but "all other Vanderbilt systems and applications remain restricted, including CampusPrint."
The school said students, faculty and staff could resume using Vanderbilt devices and asked them to report any unfamiliar activity while powering on the devices.
ABC News Nashville affiliate WKRN reported, citing cyber threat monitoring platforms, that BYOD, a Ransomware group, has claimed responsibility for the incident
ABC News has reached out to Vanderbilt University for any additional information or comment.
