Now that the FBI has figured out how to get into that encrypted Apple iPhone, that whole issue is behind us right? Of course it isn’t. Because now that someone, somewhere, has figured out how to bypass Apple’s security, every hacker everywhere is going to trying to figure out how it was done. And that’s bad news for all mobile phone users. So who was able to crack a security system that Apple said even they-couldn’t penetrate? The government has so far only said it was an “outside party.” Some have speculated it was done by a super-secret Israeli cyber-war outfit, others have postulated that some novel workaround was found to prevent the phone from erasing itself. It doesn’t really matter, because Apple will likely “fix” the security hole that was found in the next update, and all this drama will return the next time the Feds need to know what’s inside a locked phone. The quick adoption rate of 4K video resolutions and the imminent rise of VR technologies appears to be making a dent in Sony’s Playstation plans. While the usual cycle for updating major gaming consoles is typically six years or even longer, the sudden need for more graphics horsepower appears to be pushing Sony to release a mid-cycle update to the Playstation 4, according to the Wall Street Journal. The “PS4K” or “PlayStation 4.5” – or whatever it gets called – will likely surface this fall, just ahead of the release of the recently announced Sony Playstation VR headset. This first crop of VR headsets, including the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, require a LOT of computing power to operate, and the Playstation VR won’t be any different. And while the PSVR is scheduled to cost 400 bucks, we’re pretty sure the new Playstation needed to power it won’t be free, putting the final cost right in line with Sony’s competitors. Lowlife hackers used to get their kicks breaking into computer systems and bragging about it – and then maybe selling the data to other lowlifes on dark web marketplaces. But lately, they’re getting more brazen. Their tool of choice now is ransomware , and more and more, their targets are hospitals . An L.A. hospital had to cough up 17 grand to get back access to their files last month, and since then, at least two more hospitals have been hit with ransomware attacks The FBI says they are working hard at combating ransomware, but a security firm told Reuters that the trend is “becoming a national cyber emergency.” For now, hospitals are simply paying the ransom – usually several thousand dollars – and hoping that the ransomware can be scrubbed from their computer systems. Problem is, it seems like you can never really tell if the ghost has really left the machine, so this is a problem that’s going to be hard to solve.



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