Officials at **Michigan State University** (MSU) have confirmed that recent claims by the **BYOD** ransomware gang are linked to a cyber incident that occurred last month, necessitating a mandatory password reset for all student and employee accounts. On Sunday evening, the **BYOD** ransomware group added MSU to its leak site, alleging the theft of personal data pertaining to 1.3 million current and former students. ### Early October Incident Prompted Password Resets In early October, MSU became aware of suspicious cyber activity, prompting an immediate investigation. To safeguard university accounts and systems, the IT team mandated that all users with an **MSU NetID** reset their passwords to a new, minimum 15-character length. This directive was communicated to the campus on October 1. "Based on the investigation to date, the activity appeared to be a potential credential compromise event. Current evidence does not indicate a successful compromise of the university's central **Active Directory** environment," an MSU spokesperson stated. "There is no evidence that other MSU data was accessed, changed, or stolen, and the university's security measures continue to function as designed." MSU has not yet commented on the specific claims made by the hackers regarding the alleged data exfiltration. ### BYOD: An Emerging Threat **BYOD** is a relatively new ransomware gang, having emerged in September. Little is publicly known about the group's origins or structure. However, they have rapidly gained notoriety through several high-profile attacks. Last week, **BYOD** caused significant disruption by attacking **The University of New Mexico**, leading to the shutdown of its hospital and the diversion of ambulances. The group later issued an apology and purportedly provided decryption keys free of charge. Prior to the university incidents, **BYOD** also made headlines following an alleged attack on **Trump Mobile** last month. This incident, which involved the purported leak of data from 3,615 customers, drew scrutiny from the U.S. Congress. This is not MSU's first encounter with ransomware; the institution previously faced an attack in 2020 by the **Netwalker** ransomware gang.