Negotiating with criminals doesn’t always work out, as Kansas Heart Hospital in Wichita learned last week. The hospital paid to get files back after falling victim to ransomware, but only got “partial access” and a demand for more money, Techspot is reporting.
That’s right: the criminals got their ransom, and then decided they wanted more money. The hospital’s president, Dr. Greg Duick says the hospital is not paying up.
Duick won’t reveal which malware hit the hospital, or how much money was paid to the attackers.
“I’m not at liberty, because it’s an ongoing investigation, to say the actual exact amount,” said Duick. “A small amount was [paid].”
The hospital had a plan for this sort of attack, and it’s not clear why it didn’t work. Without more details from Kansas Heart, it’s hard to say. But there’s at least one bright side.
“The patient information never was jeopardized, and we took measures to make sure it wouldn’t be,” said Duick.
Still, this sort of thing is becoming way too common in America’s hospitals, and any money paid to criminals is money not spent on providing healthcare.
Ransomware encrypts files on the victim’s computers, then demands a payment for access. Typically users get access to the files after paying up, but in this case it seems like the attackers thought they could exploit the situation and get more money.
There’s been a rash of ransomware infections in the U.S. healthcare market for a while now, including hospitals in Kentucky and California. Some combination of high-value, irreplaceable information and lagging IT infrastructure makes hospitals a ripe target.
Regular, air-gapped backups could seriously dull the power of such software. If you’ve got another copy of your data, there’s no need to pay off ransomware. For our money, that’s the solution hospitals, and every organization, should be looking at.
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.