FBI issues warning to Gmail, Outlook users – SILive.com

The FBI is cautioning Gmail and Outlook users. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, FileSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Users of popular email services could be at risk of a dangerous and potentially costly ransomware attack, federal authorities warned.Earlier this week, the FBI and U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released an advisory alerting users of popular email services like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook of the Medusa ransomware gang, which has infected more than 300 organization across the country in recent years.“While Medusa has since progressed to using an affiliate model, important operations such as ransom negotiation are still centrally controlled by the developers,” according to the advisory. “Both Medusa developers and affiliates — referred to as ‘Medusa actors’ in this advisory — employ a double extortion model, where they encrypt victim data and threaten to publicly release exfiltrated data if a ransom is not paid.”As of February 2025, the group has impacted hundreds of organizations in the medical, education, legal, insurance, technology and manufacturing fields, using phishing campaigns and exploitation of unpatched software vulnerabilities to steal sensitive information and hold it hostage until a ransom is paid.A recent blog post from Symantec’s Threat Hunter team states that Medusa ransomware attacks increase 42% from 2023 to 2024 and continue to spike, with nearly twice as many Medusa attacks during the first two months of 2025 than during the same time period last year.The advisory recommends that organizations implement several mitigations to protect themselves from a potential attack, including the use of longer passwords and multi-factor authentication, as well as the development of a data recovery plan should sensitive information be compromised.Additional information and mitigation efforts are available here.If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025).© 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.YouTube’s privacy policy is available here and YouTube’s terms of service is available here.Ad Choices

Source: https://www.silive.com/news/2025/03/fbi-issues-warning-to-gmail-outlook-users.html