Lifeboat Foundation

Criminal’s favorite new tool for extortion.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was the target of a ransomware extortion plot in which hackers seized control of the hospital’s computer systems and then demanded that directors pay in bitcoin to regain access, according to law enforcement sources.

Ransomware attacks on business data systems are becoming an increasingly common form of cyber crime. The assault on Hollywood Presbyterian computers occurred Feb. 5, when hackers prevented hospital staff from accessing patient information, according to law enforcement sources, who were not authorized to discuss the details of the investigation. The hackers then demanded an unspecified sum of computer currency.

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CHEYENNE, Wyo., Feb. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Packet Ninjas, a niche cyber security consulting and services company, today announced the formation of a sister company named ShadowDragon.

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IBM’s new z13s mainframe and Cisco’s new Firepower next generation firewall.

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Beautiful — a new treatment to cure repeatable occurrences of blood related cancers.

New Cancer Therapy Could Give Hope To ‘Incurable’ Patients.

This could be the future of cancer treatment.

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But now it seems that collision may have been followed by a bright burst of gamma rays. NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope detected such an eruption just 0.4 seconds after LIGO’s gravitational waves arrived at Earth. It’s not clear whether the same event triggered both signals, but the Fermi team calculated that the probability of a coincidence was just 0.0022.

The problem is that no one expected such a bright gamma-ray burst to accompany a black-hole merger. Coalescing black holes orbit each other in a cosmic do-si-do, clearing out a region of empty space. According to models of gamma-ray bursts, isolated black holes can’t ignite them.

Strange signal

Continue reading “LIGO’s black holes may have lived and died inside a huge star” »

In 2020 TED will award a prize for the use of artificial intelligence judged to have best helped humankind in some way.

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Exploring the new battlegrounds of war — a lesson from Ukraine and Russia.

Failure to respond to this blurring of lines will result in the current multilateral system and rules of war becoming gradually outdated. As geopolitical power shifts to emerging states and non-state actors, and strategic competition for regional spheres of influence returns, the aspirations which informed the UN Charter – of a world defined by universal values of democracy and rule of law – seem increasingly hollow. But what new principles and values should underlie the ways in which disputes are resolved? As the incentives for hybrid warfare grows inexorably wider and more complex, we either redraw the lines, or face a future of warfare where there is no distinct or real peace.

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Special courts for cyber criminals.

Police dept asks govt for two courts dedicated to dealing with online crime, to improve conviction rate.

Mumbai: As crimes increasingly go digital, Mumbai police are pushing for the creation of courts that would try only cyber crimes. They have submitted a proposal to the government seeking to establish two special courts for the purpose, in a move aimed to cut back delays in trials.

Continue reading “Cops want special courts that try only cyber criminals” »

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