Cybersecurity officials warn against potentially costly Medusa ransomware attacks

The FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are warning against a dangerous ransomware scheme.
In an advisory posted earlier this week, government officials warned that a ransomware-as-a-service software called Medusa, which has launched ransomware attacks since 2021, has recently affected hundreds of people. Medusa uses phishing campaigns as its main method for stealing victims' credentials, according to CISA.
To protect against the ransomware, officials recommended patching operating systems, software and firmware, in addition to using multifactor authentication for all services such as email and VPNs. Experts also recommended using long passwords, and warned against frequently recurring password changes because they can weaken security.
Medusa developers and affiliates — called 'Medusa actors' — use a double extortion model, where they 'encrypt victim data and threaten to publicly release exfiltrated data if a ransom is not paid,' the advisory said. Medusa operates a data-leak site that shows victims alongside countdowns to the release of information.
'Ransom demands are posted on the site, with direct hyperlinks to Medusa affiliated cryptocurrency wallets,' the advisory said. 'At this stage, Medusa concurrently advertises sale of the data to interested parties before the countdown timer ends. Victims can additionally pay $10,000 USD in cryptocurrency to add a day to the countdown timer.'
Since February, Medusa developers and affiliates have hit more than 300 victims across industries, including the medical, education, legal, insurance, technology and manufacturing sectors, CISA said.

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NBC News

an hour ago

• NBC News

A cast of scandal-plagued candidates tests the limits of what New York City voters will forgive

Few political operatives have it easier than opposition researchers in New York City this year. New York's 2025 municipal races feature a scandal-laden cast of characters whose alleged or proven misdeeds have made front-page headlines for years. They include the front-runner heading into Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spent much of his bid to become New York's next mayor cleaning skeletons out of his closet, whether he's wanted to or not. The scion of a storied political family, Cuomo resigned in disgrace from the governorship in 2021 after an investigation led by state Attorney General Letitia James found that he had harassed 11 women and subjected some of them to unwanted touching and groping. A formal agreement between the state executive chamber and the U.S. Justice Department, released in 2024, found Cuomo had subjected at least 13 female employees to a 'sexually hostile work environment.' But Cuomo isn't the only candidate seeking political redemption in New York City this month. Should he win Tuesday's Democratic primary, he'll take on incumbent Eric Adams, a Democrat running for re-election as an independent. Adams was indicted in September on federal corruption charges, which were dropped this year when the Justice Department argued, among other things, that the case distracted from Adams' ability to enact President Donald Trump's immigration agenda. And then there's Anthony Weiner. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after accidentally tweeting a sexually explicit photo of himself. More sexually explicit messages came out in 2013 when he ran for mayor in a first political comeback attempt. In 2016, the FBI launched an investigation after Weiner he was accused of sending sexual messages to a 15-year-old girl. Upon seizing Weiner's computer, investigators discovered Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, had used the same laptop to send emails to her boss: then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The ordeal sparked a new FBI review of Clinton's use of a private email server just days before the 2016 presidential election, which Clinton lost to Trump. The FBI's investigation also led to Weiner's pleading guilty in 2017 to transferring obscene material to a minor, being sentenced to almost two years in prison and registering as a sex offender. Weiner is now out of prison, and his political animal can't be caged. He is vying for a spot on the New York City Council — part of an unofficial slate testing what voters will forgive and what they won't in 2025. In an interview this month, Weiner argued that the way he's handled his controversies can't be compared to the ways Cuomo and Adams have handled theirs. 'I'm not denying. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm not asking for a pardon,' said Weiner, running for a district encompassing the Lower East Side and East Village neighborhoods of Manhattan. 'I've served my time. I accepted responsibility. Now I'm moving forward,' Weiner said. In the first Democratic mayoral debate, when the moderators asked Cuomo to share a regret from his years in politics, he did not share a personal failing; instead, he said he regretted 'that the Democratic Party got to a point that we allowed Mr. Trump to be elected.' Cuomo's rivals aren't letting him forget the accusations he's faced. Asked a seemingly innocuous question at that debate about improving public safety on New York City's subway system, underdog candidate Michael Blake jumped in: 'The people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo. That's the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.' One week later, during the next debate, Cuomo's main rival, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, unleashed a new slew of attacks. After Cuomo had lambasted Mamdani over his experience, Mamdani pounced. 'I have never hounded the 13 women who credibly accused me of sexual harassment. I have never sued for their gynecological records, and I have never done those things because I am not you, Mr. Cuomo,' Mamdani said in a monologue that went viral. The allegations that led to his resignation — which Cuomo has repeatedly denied, though he also said upon resigning that there had been "generational and cultural shifts" that he "didn't fully appreciate" — have come up in the campaign alongside other controversies from his governorship. Another 2021 report from the state attorney general accused him of undercounting nursing home deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. On Juneteenth, City Council member Chi Ossé, who endorsed Mamdani, posted on X to resurface a 2019 interview in which Cuomo said the N-word while quoting a New York Times op-ed. Still, Cuomo leads the pack in polling, though he could face a fight due to the city's ranked choice voting system. Adams, too, has denied wrongdoing and claimed vindication since the federal charges he faced were dropped. Weiner says his experience has shaped the way he perceives Cuomo's and Adams' situations. 'Going through the maelstrom of public outcry, outcry and scandal, I do read the papers differently than I used to,' said Weiner, 60. 'I have what they say in Yiddish or Hebrew 'rachmones.' I have feeling for people in difficult circumstances.' Despite the empathy, he said comparing his checkered to Cuomo's and Adams' is 'apples and oranges.' 'They're denying they did anything wrong. They're suing their detractors and their accusers. I'm accepting responsibility. I paid my debt to society,' he said. 'I have this notion that everything I have done up to now has led me to this exact spot.' For New Yorkers heading to the ballot this cycle, forgiveness is not one-size-fits-all. Carmen Perez, 55, from West Harlem, is willing to give Cuomo another chance but isn't crazy about the other embattled candidates. 'I've seen what Cuomo can do,' said Perez, who runs a program for senior citizens. 'During the pandemic, he literally just took over and said, 'This is how we're going to do this and this is how we're going to get through this.'' 'That's what you want to hear from a leader during a crisis.' When it comes to Adams, Perez is less enthusiastic. 'I would hope that most people would take this opportunity and really examine why people are running and what's the real purpose behind their running,' she said of Adams, implying the controversies around him are stickier than the ones around Cuomo. In the case of Esther Yang, a yoga teacher from the city, none of the beleaguered candidates deserves her vote. 'I think their parents did not raise them well enough,' she said. 'I'm a yoga teacher, so I believe that how you do anything is how you do everything,' Yang said, before turning specifically to Cuomo and Adams: 'I believe that if you can't get your act together for your personal life, then I don't think you should be a mayor for your professional life.' Weiner's candidacy is also a nonstarter for Yang.

Daily Mail​

14 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE FBI is still probing cops over 'shoddy' Karen Read investigation, claims 35-year police veteran: 'They're playing the long game'

An ex-federal agent believes that the FBI is 'playing the long game' while investigating possible police corruption surrounding the death of Boston cop John O'Keefe – just days after his girlfriend Karen Read was sensationally cleared of killing him. Glamorous Read, 45, was found not guilty of the January 2022 murder after jurors rejected the prosecution's argument that she deliberately hit him with her SUV when she dropped him at a house party and left him to die in the snow. Her defense team alleged that Read was the victim of an elaborate plot by local Boston law enforcement to frame her, claiming O'Keefe was killed by other police officers from Canton, Massachusetts, who were at the gathering. Sean McDonough, a 35-year veteran of law enforcement, told he believes that a probe into the bungled Massachusetts State Police investigation has been a long time coming. 'This is definitely not justice for John O'Keefe nor his family. That's number one,' McDonough, who spent 28 years with the DEA and seven years as a Washington DC-area cop and crime scene investigator, told the Daily Mail. 'In my opinion, based on my 28 years' experience as a federal agent, I wholeheartedly believe that they are still investigating. 'How it happened, I don't know, but I can tell you based on the shoddiness of that investigation – favors were called in. 'It's a public corruption case and civil rights violations case, and I just believe – as we said many times in my career – we hold the time, we hold the stopwatch, and anytime we want, we can stop it. 'So I believe they're playing the long game.' Following the verdict, Colonel Geoffrey Noble of the Massachusetts State Police confirmed the case had caused the department to 'thoroughly review' their actions, He added that they had 'taken concrete steps to deliver advanced investigative training, ensure appropriate oversight, and enhance accountability. 'Under my direction as colonel, the State Police has, and will continue to, improve in these regards,' Noble said. 'Our focus remains on delivering excellent police services that reflect the value of professionalism and maintain public trust.' After Read's first trial last year ended in a hung jury, the case garnered national attention amid scrutiny over Read's claims that some of the investigators planted evidence and covered up for other suspects. O'Keefe, 46, was found dead outside the home of retired Boston Police officer Brian Albert, after Read had dropped him off for a house party. Karen Read 'got drunk, she hit him, she left him to die. It's that simple,' prosecutor Hank Brennan told the jury in Dedham, Massachusetts O'Keefe's cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma and hypothermia after police say he was left outside in a blizzard. At the center of Read's defense are claims that the investigation was inappropriately handled by dishonorably discharged State Trooper Michael Proctor, who sent vulgar text messages about Read. He was fired over texts that included calling Read a 'whack job' and a 'c***.' In other messages, he joked about rummaging through her phone for nude photos during the investigation, and remarked that she had 'no a**.' Proctor appeared on Dateline NBC this week and denied that he had framed Read. 'It did not happen,' he said. 'I would never do something like that.' In his closing arguments, defense attorney Alan Jackson hit out at Proctor, arguing that the prosecution could only feign a case because 'their investigation was flawed from the start because their investigator was corrupted from the start by bias, personal loyalties.' He also argued that experts agree 'there was no collision,' and concluded by saying 'reasonable doubt abounds.' But prosecutor Hank Brennan said the story of how O'Keefe died was 'simple.' 'Ms. Read was with Mr. O'Keefe and she got drunk. She drank. She was two to three times over the legal limit and they went to a party, an afterparty and they were fighting. '...She got drunk, she hit him, she left him to die. It's that simple.' Many of those at the party released a statement calling the verdict a miscarriage of justice. The witnesses who signed the statement included Jennifer McCabe, who made the infamous 'How long to die in cold' Internet search in the early morning hours of O'Keefe's death, and Brian Albert, who owned the home where the party took place. 'While we may have more to say in the future, today we mourn with John's family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media. The result is a devastating miscarriage of justice,' the statement said. Brian Albert told ABC News that he had been called a murderer daily, with Matt McCabe adding: 'Anyone who has touched this case has been accused of murder at some point.' His wife Jennifer interrupted by claiming that in many people's view 'anyone who is friends with us supports cop killers'. Albert denied that O'Keefe entered his home at all during the blizzard, and they were unaware of what transpired until O'Keefe's body was discovered at 6.30am the following day. Jennifer's internet search for 'how long to die in the cold' prior to O'Keefe's body being found became central to the defense. Prosecutors argued that there was no evidence that O'Keefe ever went in the house, however forensic investigators never took evidence from inside Albert's home, muddying theories over whether he was beaten inside. Read and O'Keefe had been drinking heavily on the night he died, and voice messages she left him that night where she fumed over their turbulent relationship were also played in court. The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O'Keefe's death. He had been with the Boston Police Department for 16 years. Speculation of a continuing FBI probe has been rife after Read was cleared Wednesday of killing her boyfriend. McDonough believes that following the not guilty verdict, the FBI will still be looking into the case – telling the agency 'never confirms anything'. 'The FBI is small', he told 'You've got to play well with the locals, the state police, all the different local agencies. 'So my assessment is they took an incredible, massive swing, not only at state police investigators that did the investigation, John O'Keefe, the witnesses that they used, in their case. 'So as a federal agent, I'm thinking, the Feds would never, ever walk away without having something concrete. 'Now, that's my opinion, because of the political nature, they have to work with those guys,' McDonough added. 'They have to be a team player. 'Unless Hank wants to out the alleged person who said the investigation is over, I don't believe it. 'I think with the new administration, my suspicion, that I think they said, Well, we're going to have to kind of draw this back, because, we've got to give this air of maybe that we're not investigating and maybe they're not investigating a certain aspect.' Read's case sharply divided opinions in Boston and the true crime community, with the accused gaining an ardent following who gathered at court during her trial. 'Free Karen Read' supporters were such a presence at her trial that the judge ordered they be kept 500 feet away from the courthouse and banned attendees inside the court from wearing pink, a color chosen to show support for Read. Huge cheers erupted outside the trial as the not guilty verdict was read on Wednesday, with Read thanking her supporters in a speech from the courthouse steps soon after. 'I could not be standing here without these amazing supporters,' she said. 'No one has fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than I have.' Read was found not guilty on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter, but was convicted of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. John Comeau, who grew up in Canton with the Alberts, told that he wasn't surprised to hear allegations of a drunken fight and cover up by the group. 'I think there was a drunken fight gone wrong and a lot of panic,' he said. 'All you need is the people at the top, and then everybody else is just a yes man following orders, not knowing what's really going on. 'So it's not a full-blown conspiracy. It's a bunch of people that are doing as they told but the other people are the ones that know.' 'It's sad that you can't have both justice for John and have Karen be free, because everyone will always be looking at her until there is proper investigation. 'A lot of us in town believe the FBI investigation is still ongoing through our own sources.'

Times

a day ago

• Times

Sex addict Anthony Weiner on jail, Trump and Hillary Clinton

As nominative determinism might suggest, Anthony Weiner was perhaps always doomed. A prominent New York congressman and rapidly rising star in the Democratic Party, married to Hillary Clinton's glamorous adviser, Huma Abedin, it all came crashing down — in spectacularly lurid style — in May 2011, when Weiner accidentally posted a sexually explicit photo of his bulging crotch to Twitter. The headlines wrote themselves, with the New York Post gleefully declaring, 'Weiner exposed'. First, though, he denied it, claiming his account had been hacked (the New York Post — 'Weiner: I'll stick it out'), before admitting to having sent similar pictures to numerous women ('Naked truth'), and finally resigning ('Weiner's rise and fall'). Six months later, Abedin gave birth to their son, Jordan. Undeterred, Weiner attempted a return to politics in 2013 in the bold hope of becoming mayor of New York ('Weiner's second coming'), before more reports of sexting emerged — this time under the alias Carlos Danger — and he crashed out in the primary. Through this all, Abedin stood by him. But in 2016 it emerged that he had posted a sexually explicit photo with Jordan, then four, sleeping next to him. And, a few weeks later, that one of those he had sexted was a 15-year-old girl. An FBI probe was launched the following year and he was sentenced to 21 months for transferring obscene material to a minor (he served a little over 15 months in prison). Abedin filed for divorce ('Huma cuts off Weiner') and would later say that Weiner 'didn't just break my heart, he ripped it out and stomped on it over and over again'. In the decade since, Weiner faded from view, before reappearing as an in-house liberal at WABC, a conservative talk radio station. He continued therapy for what he says is a sex addiction. Now, 14 years after first derailing his own promising career, the indefatigable Weiner is staging (another) comeback, running for a seat on New York City Council. Sarah Batchu, one of his opponents, told The New York Times that Trump's victory has allowed other scandal-prone politicians to believe they too could return. ('Trump got elected as a 34-time felon,' Weiner himself said last month.) 'Everyone deserves a second chance, but this guy has had third, fourth and fifth chances,' Batchu said. And, just days before his former wife Abedin marries Alexander Soros, the son of billionaire George Soros and heir to his fortune, 60-year-old Weiner is walking the streets of the East Village in Manhattan, dog and journalist in tow, in his bid for elected office once again. Tabloid-friendly surname aside, this was not supposed to be Weiner's trajectory. At the age of 27, the Brooklyn native became the youngest councillor in New York City's history; then, as an acclaimed, gifted congressman representing New York and known for his straight-talking, sometimes brash modus operandi, a rising star in the Democratic Party and an eligible bachelor in DC circles. In 2007, he began dating Huma Abedin, the glamorous longtime aide to Hillary Clinton. In her 2021 memoir, Both/And, Abedin wrote that after their first kiss her 'head started spinning and didn't stop'. At 32, it was her first serious relationship. They married in 2010, in a ceremony officiated by Bill Clinton, and became a bona fide Washington power couple. • NYC mayor election: Everything you need to know As if his infidelities — from less than a year into their marriage — weren't painful enough, they came with possibly catastrophic professional and political consequences too. Little over a week before the 2016 election, the FBI said it had messages between Abedin and Hillary Clinton, her boss, which they found on Weiner's seized laptop. It was his laptop, in other words, that prompted them to reopen the investigation into Clinton's private email use. Clinton herself credits the probe as a decisive factor in her loss. 'If the election was on October 27,' she said of the day prior to the announcement by James Comey, then the FBI director, that the probe would be reopened, 'I would be your president.' Weiner tells me he thinks 'things are much more complicated' but that it's 'not nothing'. Our dog walk is in the area of the city where Weiner is running for a council seat — a pocket he's never before represented. 'I mean, look, it was a very close race, and she lost by a small number of votes, and so you can point to anything and say that was the difference,' he says in his defence. He never made a 'direct amendment' to Clinton. 'I think I wrote her a letter saying I'd like an opportunity [to apologise] at some point. I don't think we ever spoke about it.' In fact, Weiner is never excessively contrite about any of the scandals I raise as we walk the neighbourhood. He is open, for example, about his belief that he was severely punished and has done his time. 'It was a slow news week and my name is Weiner,' he says at one point. At another: 'I knew that prison was ridiculous. For obscenity, it was pretty ridiculous. I mean, everyone did what they were supposed to. Look, the higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see his ass.' This is how Weiner talks — profane, direct, often curt. But he is not guileless. I ask about his treatment for sex addiction. This is a contested term. Sex addiction is not listed as a formal diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, while the World Health Organisation recognises compulsive sexual behaviour disorder as a impulse-control disorder, not an addiction. It's perhaps an 'academic conversation', Weiner says. He attends groups once a week and attendance, he says, is growing — 'Rooms are fuller and fuller, more and more people, more and more meetings.' Weiner has drawn connections between his past career and his sexual behaviour. 'You become obsessive about people's affirmation,' he says when I press him. So the obvious question is, isn't there now a high risk of relapse if he returns to politics? 'I don't think this is an example of an alcoholic who wants to be a bartender,' he says. But he does admit the link. 'I would argue that a lot of people in public life are really jazzed up by the affirmation. They get it. I just have to be mindful of it. But it's a reasonable question.' Nonetheless, one might suggest that running for public office would be the very last thing you would do if you were him, so… why? 'The candidates were running this kind of frictionless campaign,' he says of his opponents, 'trying not to offend any of the traditional Democratic constituencies.' But in the end, Weiner thought, 'The only reason not to run is that people would say something mean about me, or would bring up my past, and I didn't think that was a good enough reason.' He raised the idea of running again with Huma and Jordan, now 13, over dinner one night. They were supportive. 'Her take was, look, this is what you're good at.' He reckons the issues associated with running in this new part of the city — and as 'more of a centrist candidate in a very progressive district' — are arguably bigger challenges than the scandals. I ask about Abedin and her imminent wedding to Soros. It is the only few seconds of the interview that I get the sense he weighs his words with much care. 'I don't know what's public and I am not going to comment on it.' He does confirm, when I mention it's due to take place the following weekend, that he isn't going. 'That's the day that polls open here… Yeah, I will not be going. I wish them all the best and she seems very happy and Jordan likes them [all]. So it's all great.' His former wife has moved on — is he dating too? 'That's a big word.' At this point his dog, Billy, finds herself in a harmless brawl in the dog park. This is a welcome distraction — 'She's just being the neighbourhood school mom' — but Weiner returns to our earlier topic and says that, yes, he does go out on dates. I ask if he uses the apps. He doesn't, he says, but he's clearly amused. 'That's kind of a funny idea.' He admits the task of persuading people to trust him is harder than for most. 'Yes, I just had this conversation with someone recently.' With someone he's dating? 'Dating is… It's a lame word…' He trails off before talking about the dog instead. 'You see, she wants to play. She just doesn't quite know how to do it.' At this point Billy begins humping another dog. I suggest this might be too on the nose to include in the interview. 'A little bit,' he concedes. 'You can kind of see the lead for your piece taking shape right now in front of us. I'll write your lead for you: 'You can tell Anthony Weiner's dog has been around him for a while.' ' We wrap up the subject of dating. 'Put it this way: it's fraught. But I don't date much.' Does he stand any chance of winning, though? Weiner thinks his opponents in the upcoming council election are tame. 'In today's world, you've got these other people that I'm running against [who] cut their teeth in a very different time, where it's: how do you get this? How do you not offend this group?' He talks about homelessness. 'You have homeless people who are mentally unwell living on our streets. It's a problem. Everyone recognises [it], every candidate recognises it… This group of politicians that I am up against, they look at the situation and say, all right, who's on this side of the problem? Who's on this side? 'And there are people like the American Civil Liberties Union, who said that a homeless person has a right to be on that street right now in our public space. But most people in this part [of the city], most people who vote, they look at that and say, 'How do we solve that problem?' ' His putative return to politics is not without backlash. Sarah Batchu proposed a bill in February nicknamed the Weiner Act that would ban registered sex offenders — of which Weiner is one — from holding public office. His top opponent is Harvey Epstein, a previously unknown candidate who went viral when Saturday Night Live did a sketch about his name: neither Harvey Weinstein nor Jeffrey Epstein. We leave the dog park and a man walks towards us holding a camera. 'You've got some nerve running for office after sending that dick!' Weiner is unfazed. 'Say, one of these Trump motherf***ers!' Most of what is shouted over the next three minutes is even more unprintable than that. 'You kiss your mom with that mouth?' Weiner asks him, repeatedly shouting, 'Trump motherf***er, go home!' and, 'Another Trump motherf***er!' to those in the park who are, by this point, beginning to turn their heads. The man repeats the usual charges. 'Your fault that Trump got elected in the first place, motherf***er!' he rages. 'They used your sex crime to sink Hillary!' The episode feels reminiscent of the 2016 fly-on-the-wall documentary, Weiner, which introduced me and countless others to Weiner's brusque style while his mayoral campaign (and then marriage too) combusted in real time, its whole extraordinary disintegration captured on camera. This time, a number of young men rally to him. 'Mr Weiner,' one says. 'Don't even talk to him. He's worthless.' These aren't the only men we bump into on our walk who are supportive of Weiner — and they are largely men. But it's difficult to tell if he stands a chance in the council election. 'It's too small a district to really poll,' he says. But he knows his pitch well. 'I just think that my gift is the absence of really giving a shit about whether I might offend someone… And it sounds to people like, oh, I'm doing something different. 'No, what I'm really doing is just practising the only form of politics I know how to do now. Is it going to fit well with this moment? Does it fit well with this electorate? Does it fit well with my scandal? Who the f*** knows. But I don't know any other way to do it. I don't know any other way to do it.'