Hackers hold Baltimore for ransom, Google Glass is making a comeback, and Google’s AI improves accuracy of lung cancer diagnosis.
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There’s a lot of chatter on Reddit about a group of hackers demanding $100,000 worth in bitcoins in exchange for the approximately 10,000 Baltimore government computers they seized May 7. According to reporting, Baltimore is steadfast against paying the ransom. Unfortunately, this also means that city employees have been locked out of their email accounts and citizens can’t access websites that allow them to pay water bills, property taxes and parking tickets. Ransomware makes it impossible to access a server without a digital key that only the hackers have. The hackers’ ransom note, obtained by the Baltimore Sun, demanded 13 bitcoins for payment, and threatened to increase the ransom if it wasn’t paid in four days. Both deadlines have now passed. According to Vox, security experts are assisting with the restoration process, while the FBI is involved with the investigation.
Google has unveiled the second incarnation of its augmented reality headset Google Glasses – the Glass Enterprise Edition 2. Trending on LinkedIn, This groovy headset will include an upgraded camera, USB port for charging and an artificial intelligence engine. Google is insisting that the new $1,000 glasses are not meant for mainstream use, and like its predecessor, is not being sold directly to consumers. It has, however, been removed from Google parent company Alphabet’s X “moonshot factory” and put into the Google family of products. With a heavier focus on business and professional use, Google is hoping to win customers over with the promise of hands-free computing that doesn’t make you look completely ridiculous.
And lastly, also trending on LinkedIn, a report suggests Google AI is the game changer radiologists need to better diagnose patients with lung cancer. A study published in Nature Medicine reports that Google’s AI algorithms, trained on 42,000 patient CT scans, outperformed six radiologists by detecting 5 per cent more cancers and reduced the amount of false positives.
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