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In the past week, law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a warning about the ongoing threat of Medusa ransomware. Heres what you need to know about the threat and how you can protect yourself. What is Medusa ransomware? Ransomware is a type of software that is designed to compromise your information, allowing hackers to steal it. Once these bad actors have your data, they then contact you (or the software contacts you on their behalf), and they inform you that unless you pay a ransom, your data will either be deleted, sold to the highest bidder, or released publicly for all to see. Medusa ransomware is a specific type of ransomware that is currently making the rounds. According to a cybersecurity advisory published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Medusa ransomware is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) that has been going around since at least June 2021. The advisory states that Medusa relies on a double extortion modelthat encrypts the data on a victim’s hard drive so they cant access it, as well as threatens to decrypt the data and sell it to third parties or release it publicly. Users must pay a ransom in order to gain access to their encrypted files again and/or in order to ensure that the files are not disseminated to additional parties. Ransom payments can range anywhere between $100 to $1 million. The CISA says that as of February 2025, Medusa has impacted over 300 victims from a variety of critical infrastructure sectors, which include medical, education, legal, insurance, technology, and manufacturing. How can I protect myself and my company from Medusa? The advisory posted on the CISAs website states that Medusa is primarily spread through phishing campaigns to steal victims’ credentials. The ransomware can also infiltrate a system through unpatched software vulnerabilities. With that in mind, the notice states that there are several steps an individual and organization can take to mitigate threats from Medusa. These include: Using long passwords on accounts. Implementing multifactor authentication (also known as MFA or 2FA) on accounts. Keeping software and operating systems on all devices up to date. Use VPNs to protect your traffic. Have multiple copies of sensitive data backed up on more than just one device. Finally, its always a good idea to practice common sense measures that help reduce your vulnerability to phishing attempts. This includes never clicking on a link that is emailed or texted to you if you dont recognize the sender. Likewise, never open attachments you receive from an unknown sender. And even when a sender appears legitimate, it is always best to contact them via another channel to ensure that they, indeed, were the one who sent you a link or attachment. A common phishing tactic bad actors use is to send emails to victims that appear to be from valid or known email addressesbut when you look closely at them, youll see that a character or two might have been changed. For example, an I in an email address might have been changed to a 1). At first glance, the email looks legitimate, but the change is a giveaway that someone is trying to misrepresent who they actually are. The CISA maintains a webpage with myriad tips detailing how to further protect yourself from ransomware.
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Kim Atchison was hunkered down in her grandmother’s storm shelter with her 5-year-old grandson Saturday night in their tiny Alabama hometown of Plantersville when her husband and son raced in.“Get down; get all the way down to the bottom of the cellar,” they told her, saying they could see a twister coming.Atchison said she remembers first the “dead silence” and then hearing the wind that felt like a funnel and things outside hitting against each other.“All was quiet after that because it was that fast,” she said. “Like a snap of a finger and it was gone.”Atchison and her family were among the fortunate ones to avoid being killed in the three-day outbreak of severe weather across eight states that kicked up a devastating combination of wildfires, dust storms, and tornadoesclaiming at least 42 lives since Friday.Two people were killed by a twister in Plantersville. One of the lives lost was that of 82-year-old Annie Free, who “just looked out for everyone,” Atchison’s husband said. The tornado struck Free’s home, leaving only the front patio behind.Darren Atchison spent Monday delivering granola bars and sports drinks to the pummeled neighborhood, driving his all-terrain vehicle around downed trees.More than a half-dozen houses were destroyed while others were left in rough shape, some with walls peeled clean off. The tornado flipped a trailer onto its roof and toppled trees in every direction.When Heidi Howland emerged from her home after hiding in her bedroom underneath a mattress with her husband, kids and grandkids as the twister approached, she found fallen trees and broken car windows.Many of her neighbors whose houses were damaged came to her front porch to take refuge from the rain after the storm passed Saturday night. One was Free’s daughter, who Howland said cried late into the night because the first responders couldn’t find her mother.Free’s body wasn’t found until the morning.Also killed was Dunk Pickering, a fixture in the community who often hosted live music events and helped neighbors during tough times. Neighbor John Green found Pickering’s body in the wreckage of a building just across the street from Green’s home.“Whether he knew you or not, he would help anyone,” Green said. “I’ve known him for 20 years. He’s been like that ever since the day I first met him.”Green and other neighbors spent at least five hours Saturday night pulling people from the rubble and carrying them to paramedics who were unable to reach the area because roads were blocked by debris. Wildfires in Oklahoma Wind-driven wildfires across the state destroyed more than 400 homes over the weekend and will continue to be a threat in the coming days because of high winds.Dozens of fires were still burning across the state on Monday, said Keith Merckx at Oklahoma Forestry Services, and much of the state including the Oklahoma City area remained under fire warnings.While conditions over the weekend allowed crews to get a handle on most wildfires across Texas and Oklahoma, forecasters at the National Weather Service said extremely critical fire weather conditions were expected Tuesday over an area spanning from southeastern New Mexico through the Texas Panhandle and into western Oklahoma.“These fires, once they get started, become really hard to stop. They move more quickly than our resources can keep up with,” Merckx said.Four deaths so far were blamed on the fires or high winds, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. More than 70 homes were destroyed by wildfire outbreaks Friday in and around Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University. Tornadoes and high winds across the South In Mississippi, six people died and more than 200 were displaced by a string of tornadoes across three counties, the governor said.Within about an hour of each other on Saturday, two big tornadoes tore through Walthall County, Mississippi, according to the National Weather Service. The strongest one packed winds of 170 mph (274 kph) when it swept a well-built home from its foundation, leaving a pile of debris behind, the agency said in an updated report late Monday.Three people died in the county, including 7-year-old Carter Young, who was in a mobile home, Walthall County Coroner Chris Blackwell said. The other two people killedGabrielle Pierre, 34, and Jeffery Irvin, 42were in a mobile home next door to the one where Young was found, Blackwell said.Scattered twisters and storm damage led to the deaths of at least 13 people in Missouri, including a 30-year-old man who along with his dog was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning after he was using a generator indoors during the storm, authorities said. In Arkansas, officials confirmed three deaths.As the storm headed east, two boys ages 11 and 13 were killed when a tree fell on their home in western North Carolina early Sunday, firefighters in Transylvania County said. Firefighters found them amid the uprooted three-foot-wide tree after relatives said they had been trapped in their bedroom, officials said.A tornado touched down at about 3 a.m. Monday in a neighborhood in Perquimans County, North Carolina, destroying three mobile homes and damaging several others, according to the National Weather Service. Eight people were injured in the community, with no reported deaths, the weather service said. The community is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Norfolk, Virginia. Dust storms in Kansas and Texas High winds spurred dust storms that led to almost a dozen deaths in car crashes Friday.Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Sara Cline in Tylertown, Mississippi, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeff Roberson in Wayne County, Missouri, contributed. Safiyah Riddle and John Seewer, Associated Press
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Now that the last pint of green beer has been poured, its time to move on to the next reason to celebrate March: college basketball. The National Collegiate Athletic Associations (NCAA) annual single-elimination tournament, more commonly known as March Madness, kicked things off over the weekend with Selection Sunday. Heres what you need to know heading into the First Four games and how to tune in. A very brief history of March Madness On the mens side, the tournament dates back to 1939. Eight teams competed for the Division 1 Championship title, with Oregon taking home the inaugural trophy. The women got in on the action in 1982. Since then, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers have competed in every edition of the tournament. What happened during Selection Sunday? These days, the playing field has expanded to 68 teams on both sides of the tournament. Thirty-one of the teams are picked because they automatically qualify after winning their own Division 1 conference. The other 37 are picked by the NCAA Selection Committee, who takes factors such as the teams overall season record into consideration. After the teams are chosen, that same committee grants each one a seed or ranking. This helps ensure the playing schedule is fair and balanced. Its hard not to be an armchair critic when the teams and seeds are announced. Almost every year has some controversy, and 2025 is no exception. Mens fans were shocked to see the University of North Carolina included in the tournament after its 2213 record in the 202425 season. Bubba Cunningham, the UNC athletic director who also sits on the Selection Committee, assured CBS that he recused himself from the process. All the policies and procedures were followed, and Keith [Gill, the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference] can address exactly how North Carolina was discussed because I was not in the room for any of that, he explained, as cited by CNN. Meanwhile, womens fans were surprised to see the UCLA Bruins take the No. 1 seed from South Carolina. This is the first time since 2021 that the Gamecocks were not given the honors. Head Coach Dawn Stanley would like to have more insight into the decision-making process. Obviously, its disappointing. It really is. Id like to get some feedback on how they came to that conclusion because we put together, we manufactured a schedule that if done right it should produce an overall number one seed, she said, according to CBS Sports. How can I watch or stream the First Four March Madness games? Now that the beginning of the brackets are ready to go, lets watch some hoops. The action-packed tournament starts out with the lowest seeded teams facing off in whats known as the First Four. For the first mens game, St. Francis will take on Alabama State on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. ET. Here’s the full First Four men’s schedule: Tuesday, March 18: Alabama State vs. Saint Francis: 6:40 p.m. (truTV) San Diego State vs. North Carolina: 9:10 p.m. (truTV) Wednesday, March 19: American University vs. Mount St. Mary’s: 6:40 p.m. (truTV) Texas vs. Xavier: 9:10 p.m. (truTV) For the first womens game, Iowa State and Princeton will battle it out on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. Here’s the full First Four women’s schedule: Wednesday, March 19: Iowa State vs. Princeton: 7 p.m. (ESPNU) UC San Diego vs. Southern U: 9 p.m. (ESPNU) Thursday, March 20: High Point vs. William & Mary: 9 p.m. (ESPNU) Columbia vs. Washington: 7 p.m. (ESPN2) Every moment of the NCAA mens and womens tournament will be broadcast live. Because there are numerous games, it takes multiple channels to broadcast them all. This year the First Four men’s games will be on the TruTV channel. This lesser-known cable channel is included in most traditional cable subscriptions. The women’s First Four games will be on ESPNU and ESPN2. Cord-cutters should be able to find these channels on the following streaming services, but double check your local offerings before signing up: Hulu + Live TV YouTube TV Sling TV What about the rest of the tournament? The rest of the mens games will be spread out on CBS, TBS, and TNT, and their streaming platforms, such as Paramount+. The womens tournament will call ESPN’s networks and ABC home. For a printable mens bracket and full schedule click here. For a printable womens bracket and full schedule click here.
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