Ransomware Gang Claims Michigan State Breach After Forcing Password Resets for Every Account

The BYOD ransomware gang has added Michigan State University to its leak site, claiming it stole personal information on 1.3 million current and former students. The listing appeared on Sunday evening. It follows an incident in early October that led the university to require a password reset for every student and employee account. The new passwords had to be at least 15 characters long, and the request went out to campus on October 1.

A university spokesperson said the activity appeared to be a potential credential compromise event. They said current evidence does not indicate a successful compromise of the central Active Directory environment, and that there is no evidence other university data was accessed, changed or stolen. The university did not respond to follow-up questions about the gang's claims, so the claims remain unverified in the source reporting.

BYOD is a new group that emerged in September, and little is known about it. Last week it drew outrage after an attack on the University of New Mexico shut down its hospital, forcing ambulances to be diverted. The group later apologised and allegedly provided decryption keys for free. It also made headlines after an alleged attack on Trump Mobile, followed by a leak of data from 3,615 customers. Michigan State previously suffered a ransomware attack in 2020 by the Netwalker gang.