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Vanderbilt University Hit by Cyberattack That Impacts Multiple Services

Nashvillebanner • November 9, 2026

Vanderbilt University urged faculty and staff to “shut down university devices, disconnect from university Wi-Fi, and remain extremely vigilant” as the school worked to investigate and contain an “active cybersecurity incident” on Monday morning.

The university confirmed the apparent cyberattack in a statement posted to social media, noting that it could “impact university devices, systems, and cloud-based services.”

A Vanderbilt Health spokesperson confirmed that its hospital and clinical facilities had not been impacted, adding that officials were “proceeding with the utmost care and diligence.”

One Vanderbilt employee described to the Banner what she saw on her computer Thursday after starting it up. A notification that the computer was running a “system update” was followed by another saying that it was deleting old files, they said. Then came a warning a ransomware attack with a link to click for more information. At that point, they said, all the computer’s files became “.byod” files.

Another source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said that the IT help line for Vanderbilt’s employees “had crashed.”

Messages attributed to the ransomware group BYOD online Monday said it was behind the Vanderbilt breach. The group has also recently claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on Michigan State University and the University of New Mexico Health System .

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This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

BYOD Ransomware Group Targets Vanderbilt University, Claims Data Theft On November 9, 2026, Vanderbilt University experienced a cybersecurity incident attributed to the BYOD ransomware group, which claimed to have stolen sensitive data, including over one million Social Security numbers, student and employee records, and research data. The university instructed its community to shut down devices and disconnect from campus Wi-Fi as its IT team worked to contain the situation. BYOD's claims were posted on a ransomware leak site, asserting they had encrypted the university's databases. While the university has confirmed the incident, it has not verified the extent of the data breach or whether any information was actually compromised. The attack has disrupted classes and university operations, with reports of pop-up warnings and unusual activity on university devices. This incident follows a similar attack on Michigan State University by the same group, raising concerns about the targeting of educational institutions. 31 sources 61

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Vanderbilt University Hit by Cyberattack That Impacts Multiple Services

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Extracted Entities

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