MedStar Health, a group of Baltimore, Maryland hospitals, shut down their entire network yesterday to stop the spread of an unidentified malware attack. As of today, the network is back up and running.
“Our team quickly made a decision to take down all of our systems as a precaution and to ensure no further corruption,” says an official statement. The incident happened just one week after Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in California had its entire network shut down by ransomware.
Hollywood Presbyterian ultimately paid off the ransomware to the tune of $17,000; MedStar Health isn’t confirming or denying that they paid anyone off, only pointing to the statement on their website.
“We are working with our IT and Cybersecurity partners to fully assess and address the situation,” the hospital said in a statement. Also involved is the FBI, which is reportedly investigating the situation.
Networks temporarily shut down to prevent virus spread. We have no evidence of compromised information. All facilities remain open.
— MedStar Health (@MedStarHealth) March 28, 2016
There is no evidence that any personal information has been stolen, according MedStar’s statement.
The healthcare industry is a particularly attractive target for hackers and malware makers, if also a reprehensible one for them to select. Hospitals and insurance companies store a ton of personal information about patients, which is useful in the black market. Tight budgets, meanwhile, mean cyber-security isn’t always a top priority.
The last few months have seen hospitals targeted in a wide range of attacks, from Hollywood to Kentucky and even to attacks on medical devices themselves. It’s an unfortunate reality.
“The attempt to negatively impact an institution designed to save lives and care for those in need is a sad and troublesome reality of our times, not only for MedStar Health, but for our entire industry and the communities we serve,” said Kenneth A. Samet, president and CEO of MedStar Health.
He’s right, but it’s also true that healthcare companies need to do more to lock down their networks for the 21st century. Sad and troublesome as it might be, it’s necessary.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.