Ultrasound Machines With Old Software Can Be Easily Hacked

Ultrasound machines that are running on outdated software, like Windows 2000 or later, allow an easy entry for hackers. These perpetrators can steal all the sensitive patient information and extort hospitals for millions in ransom.

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According to security specialist, Check Point Software Technologies, cyber terrorists can gain entry to hospitals and all their networks just by connecting to an ultrasound imaging device running on old software. Take, for example, a report by the Department of Health & Social Care about the 2017 WannaCry ransomware virus attack. It hit the computers of at least 100 countries, where it spread mainly through programs that lacked security updates. It caused the U.K’s National Health Service to shell out 92 million pounds ($104 million) in I.T costs and lost output.

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The report’s purpose was to show the possibility that it could happen again. The spokesman for Check Point, Gil Messing emphasized that it wasn’t because of the manufacturers and devices, but because of its outdated software. But any hospital would usually snob the idea of taking their machines off-line for an update because it takes time, it costs money and they might lose their patients.

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The only solution is to employ advanced & comprehensive security solutions and a better file encryption. Also, separate patient data from IT networks, according to a blog post made by Check Point.

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I The University of California at Irvine (UCI) recently announced that DeepCubeA, an artificial intelligence system devised by a team of computer scientists, has solved a Rubiks Cube in a little more than 1 second. This obliterated the record established by a human (Du Yusheng, China; 3.47 seconds) by over two seconds.

II UCI further revealed that DeepCubeA, a reinforcement-learning algorithm written by computer scientists and mathematicians, was able to crack the 3-D puzzle without previous knowledge of the game or prompting from its human handlers.

III The study, which was published in Nature Machine Intelligence on July 15, 2019, noted that the systems algorithm was provided with 10 billion combinations of the puzzle. About 60% of the time, DeepCubeA was able to solve the puzzle in the most efficient way possible (fewest number of moves required to find the solution). On average, it was able to figure out the solution in 28 moves.

IV DeepCubeA is not the fastest nonhuman solver of the Rubiks Cube. Rubiks Contraption, a robot built by Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo in 2018, was able to do this in 0.38 seconds. Rubiks Contraption, however, was specifically designed for this task, using human-scripted algorithms to perform a specific function. In contrast, DeepCubeA learned about the game in isolation in two days, working on an increasingly complex series of combinations and, in the process, figuring the puzzle out on its own.

V Rubiks Cube, originally known as the Magic Cube, is a combination puzzle crafted by Hungarian sculptor Ern Rubik in 1974. While its popularity peaked during the 1980s it was proclaimed German Game of the Year in 1980 and received similar awards in the UK, the United States, and France it remains popular until today.

VI In 1982, the First Rubiks Cube World Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary. Today, all official competitions are organized and regulated by the World Cube Association, which was formed in 2004.

Ultrasound Machines With Old Software Can Be Easily Hacked

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