Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 10/29 – Troubling Ransomware Attacks On Hospitals

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

Major warnings about a rash of ransomware attacks on US hospitals. The new AMD chips. MOAAR consolidation in the chip industry. Can I introduce you to Quantum Computing as a Service? And a reminder that as Hollywood moves to streaming first, you don’t own anything. Seriously. You’re just renting. Sponsors: GetRoman.com/techmeme MailmanHQ.com Links: Building wave of ransomware attacks strike U.S. hospitals (Reuters) AMD’s new Radeon RX 6800 XT promises to go head to head with Nvidia’s RTX 3080 (The Verge) It’s Official- Marvell Acquiring Inphi For $10B That Boosts Its Cloud And 5G Opportunities (Forbes) Honeywell announces its H1 quantum computer with 10 qubits (TechCrunch) Honeywell introduces quantum computing as a service with subscription offering (ZDNet) Microsoft plans big Windows 10 UI refresh in 2021 codenamed 'Sun Valley' (Windows Central) Samsung posts highest-ever quarterly revenue as demand roars back (CNET) Kuo: iPhone 12 Pro Demand Higher Than Expected (MacRumors) Genshin Impact made $245m in its first month on mobile alone (GamesIndustry.biz) Amazon Argues Users Don't Actually Own Purchased Prime Video Content (The Hollywood Reporter) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Thursday, October 29th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, major warnings about a rash of ransomware attacks on U.S. hospitals.

The new AMD chips I promised you yesterday. More consolidation news in the chip industry. Can I introduce you to quantum computing as a service? And a reminder that as Hollywood moves to streaming first, you don't own anything. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Remember about a year ago when we were, on the ransomware beat several times in a row after several high-profile cases involving ransomware and municipalities happened several times in a row. Yeah, well, as tends to happen in

the space, things have evolved a bit. Cybersecurity experts believe the FBI is actively investigating Riyuk ransomware attacks on more than two dozen U.S. hospitals, and officials are apparently warning hospitals to back up their systems to be safe, quoting Reuters. The FBI is investigating the recent attacks, which include incidents in Oregon, California, and New York made public just this week, according to three cybersecurity consultants familiar with the matter. A doctor at one hospital told Reuters that the facility was functioning on paper after an attack and unable to transfer patients because the nearest alternative was an hour away. The doctor declined to be named because staff were not authorized to speak with reporters. Quote, we can still watch vitals and

getting imaging done, but all results are being communicated via paper only, the doctor said. staff could see historic records but not update those files. Experts said the likely group behind the attack was known as Wizard Spider or UNC 1878. They warned that such attacks can disrupt hospital operations and lead to loss of life. The attacks prompted a teleconference call on Wednesday led by FBI and Homeland Security officials for hospital administrators and cybersecurity experts. A participant told Reuters that government officials warned hospitals to make sure their backup systems were in order, disconnect systems from the internet where possible, and avoid using personal email accounts.

Quote, this appears to have been a coordinated attack designed to disrupt hospitals specifically all around the country, said Alan Liska, a threat intelligence analyst with U.S. cybersecurity firm recorded future. Quote, while multiple ransomware attacks against health care providers each week have been commonplace, this is the first time we have seen six hospitals targeted in the same day by the same ransomware actor, end quote. In the past, ransomware infections at hospitals have downed patient recordkeeping databases, which critically store up-to-date medical information affecting hospitals' ability to provide health care.

Ransomware attacks have jumped 50% over the past three months, security firm checkpoint said Wednesday, with the proportion of healthcare organizations impacted jumping to 4% in the third quarter from 2.3% in the previous quarter, end quote. That AMD chip event I was telling you about yesterday did indeed happen yesterday. and here are the headline-making new GPUs AMD unveiled. The $999 R2909-X-6900 XT coming in December for $500 less than the RTX 3090. The $649 Radion RX-6800XT coming in November, actually, on the 18th, for $50 less than the RTX 3080, and they also release the Radion RX-6800 regular, quoting, The Verge. All three are based on AMD's latest RDNA2 technology that's also found inside the

PS5 and Xbox Series X. These latest radion cards will support hardware accelerated ray tracing for next-gen games, and AMD is promising to go ahead to head with Nvidia in 4K and 1440P PC gaming. The new $649 Radion RX-6800-X is aimed at Nvidia's RTX 3080, specifically, promising performance in 4K and 1440P gaming that matches or exceeds Nvidia's latest card for $50 less. It comes equipped with 16 gigabytes of GDDR6 memory, a 215 megahertz base clock, 2250 megahertz boost clock,

20.74 terraflops of GPU performance and 72 compute units overall. AMD has shared some early benchmarks that show the Radion RX-6800-X-Beting the RTX3080 at 4K in Battle Field 5, Borderlands 3, Call of Duty modern warfare, Foursa Horizon, and more. It also matches the RtX 3080 in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Gears 5, and Doom Eternal. If these results are similar across a wider range of games, then the Radion RX-6800-XT certainly looks promising for solid

4K gaming performance, end quote. Speaking of chips, more consolidation in the chip space. Marvel technology is acquiring InFi in a $10 billion deal. to boost its cloud and 5G opportunities. Quoting once more from Forbes's Patrick Moorhead, whose beat continues to be absolutely red-hot recently, quote, While many people are familiar with Marvel, I think less are familiar with InFi. Infi creates the electro-optics chips used by networking equipment makers to connect the massive racks of servers inside cloud data centers

and connect the data centers to one another. The same chips are also used to connect 5G base stations together and to the rest of the network. consider the cloud giants higher speed, lower latency, availability zones, or peering, which all require an ultra-high-speed fiber optic connection. Additionally, consider connecting one server rack or fleet to another in the highest speedway possible. Infi's chips power those connections. For wired and wireless carriers, N-Fi products connect different parts of the network with fiber optics requiring N-Fi's digital signal processing, DSP chips,

analog support chips, and drivers. As industry data disaggregation increases, which I believe it will, the need increases for fiber optics. What made Infi so successful was that it cracked the code on higher order modulation using PAM-4 DSPs for shorter distances and coherent DSPs for longer distances. Since 2018, Infi has racked up a 40% CAGR and currently had an eye-popping 90% growth for the quarter. The two companies also share many cloud, carrier, OEM, and module customers. So you could imagine a scenario where customers look at Marvel as a one-stop shop for networking. Marvel is a market share leader for compute for the wireless carrier base stations, and InFi is the interconnect between the front hall and backhaul.

In the cloud data center, infi is a leader in and between the data center with its photonics interconnects. Marvel then adds its smart NIC or now referred to as a DPU and storage networking. In the future, I can see Synergy in a combined custom and ASIC opportunity, leveraging both Marvel and Infi, end quote. Could I interest you in quantum computing as a service? Honeywell has unveiled Model H1, a quantum computer with 10 cubits, reaching a quantum volume of 128, quoting TechCrunch. That's higher than comparable efforts by IBM,

but also well behind the QV4 million machine, Ionic says it was able to achieve with 32 qubits. The H1 will be available to enterprises through the Azure Quantum Platform, and the company says it is partnering with Zapata Computing and Cambridge Quantum Computing on this project. In addition to the next generation of its quantum computer, the company also today announced its overall quantum roadmap for the next 10 years. The plan here is to go from 10 to 40 qubits with all-to-all connectivity as it moves toward a next generation of devices that are fault-tolerant and can be deployed at a larger scale, end quote. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great. But what about that quantum computing as a service thing, quoting ZDNet?

The tech world may have to make room for a new acronym, perhaps qubits as a service, quas, or some such, as Honeywell has introduced what appears to be the first subscription-based plan for quantum computing usage. With the introduction Thursday of the company's Model H-1 quantum computer with 10 cubits and a logical quantum volume of 128, the company detailed a plan to charge in a subscription fashion based on monthly access to the machines. The subscriber license gives a company access over the course of a month to blocks of, quote, dedicated time in two different flavors, standard and premium, with eight hours per month of dedicated time or 16 hours respectively. The idea of blocks of time is to accommodate the need to provide something like quality time

in which to do quantum experiments. Quote, we're talking about significant time, said Tony Utley, president of Honeywell Quantum Solutions in an interview with ZDNet. That's what we are finding is the most useful right now. It's not going to be a five-minute interaction with a quantum computer. it's not even going to be an hour-long interaction, said Utley. These are interactions that you want to have tens of hours on before you can demonstrate the kind of utility coming from these systems, end quote. One reason for the subscription is that there is still substantial handholding that happens. Those windows of time include participation with the customer by Honeywell Quantum Theorists

and Honeywell operations teams who work hand in hand with customers. The hands-on approach of Honeywell to customer subscriptions makes sense, given that much of the work that customers will be doing initially is to gain a sense of trust, said Utley. They will be seeing what results they get from the quantum computer and matching those to the same work on a classical computer to validate that the quantum system produces correct output. On top of the blocks of dedicated time, each subscriber can get queuing time, said Utley, where jobs are processed as capacity is available, end quote. So I love this. I love the idea of Quas, QAAS, Quantum as a Service, but I also love that we've basically reinvented good old timeshare computing.

Microsoft apparently wants to do a shakeup to the Windows 10 UI, which has been pretty static for a while now. Sources are telling Windows Central that Microsoft is planning an extensive Windows 10 update for 2021 with design refreshes for many top-level UIs, including Start and File Explorer. Quote, this UI project is codenamed Sun Valley internally and is expected to ship as part of the Windows 10 cobalt release scheduled for the high-es-expload. holiday 2021 season. Internal documentation describes the project as reinvigorating and modernizing the Windows desktop experience to keep up with customer expectation in a world driven by other

modern and lightweight platforms. Windows 10 has remained much the same these last few years with little to no changes in its design or feature set. Many other platforms on the market have gone through entire redesigns or UI refreshes in the last five years, and while Windows 10 has gone through minor design iterations with the introduction of fluent design, we've not seen a significant refresh or rethinking of its UI. The Sun Valley Project appears to be spearheaded by the Windows Devices and Experiences team led by Chief Product Officer Panos Penae, who took charge of said division back in February. Microsoft announced in May that the company would be reinvesting in Windows 10 in the 2021 timeframe, and my sources say that Sun Valley is the result of that reinvestment.

It's still too early to nail down exactly what will be updated with Sun Valley, but sources have said to expect new start menu and action center experiences, like based on those same experiences found on Windows 10x, but tailored for desktop. Microsoft is also working on an updated taskbar built with modern code and an improved UI for the Legacy File Explorer. For tablet users, I'm told that better animations and a more fluid experiences on the cards. We already know that Microsoft is redesigning the touch keyboard and emoji picker, as those changes are already live in the Windows Insider Dev channel. Microsoft will also continue its escapade of rounding off corners throughout the UI, including App Windows.

and other shell areas, end quote. I don't always report on Samsung earnings, but I thought it was worth recognizing that the king of the Android phones is doing quite well, apparently. In fact, Samsung reported its highest ever quarterly revenue of $59 billion, led apparently by strong demand for its smartphones.

Also, Samsung's operating profits were up 59% year over year, quoting CNET. Samsung said it saw, quote, a boost in demand for smartphones and consumer electronics as well as efficient cost management, end quote. It also benefited from stronger sales of memory chips and other consumer products. Quote, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues around the world, reopening of key economies led to significant increase in consumer demand, Samsung said,

in a press release. Still, Samsung warned its rebound may be short-lived. The company expects its profit to decline for the last three months of the year as server customers buy fewer memory chips and as competition heats up in smartphones and other consumer electronics. Apple in particular will be a tough rival for Samsung this quarter, the company introduced four new iPhones, all of which come with 5G connectivity. Samsung does expect 2021 to be better for the electronics industry.

The company predicted, quote, a recovery and overall global demand, but noted that uncertainties will remain over the possibility of recurring epidemic waves of COVID-19, end quote. This may be neither here nor there for you or for really anyone, but I did find it interesting. Apple has apparently been surprised by higher than expected iPhone 12 Pro demand. This is quoting from Mac rumors, quoting from our good buddy Ming Chi Quo. Quote, Quo had previously indicated that Apple's estimated shipment allocations for the new iPhone models placed the iPhone 12 at the top with 40 to 45 percent of inventory allocation up from 15 to 20 percent. However, the strong interest in the iPhone 12 pro in pre-orders has caused him to revise that split.

due to the demand, Quo sees the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro to each have approximately 30 to 35% share each of new iPhone shipments in this quarter. Meanwhile, Quo also downgraded his expectations for the iPhone 12 Mini, with estimates that it will be responsible for only 10 to 15% of sales down from 20 to 25%. Quo cites weak demand for the smaller device in the Chinese market, end quote. As I told you, I plumped for a 12 pro myself. As a matter of fact, if you hear the doorbell ring and the background right now. That's UPS dropping my phone off right now today.

Continued reminder that gaming is bigger than Hollywood, especially as Hollywood is basically frozen in amber at the moment, at least from a production and release perspective. Genshin Impact is a freemium mobile role-playing game, and it grossed $245 million in worldwide player spending in just its first month of release, making it one of the largest mobile game launches ever outpacing the launches of Honor of Kings, player unknown battlegrounds mobile, and even Pokemon Go, that that's a bit disputed. I've read a couple different numbers from a couple different places that Pokemon Go actually grossed $283 million at its launch, quoting gamesindustry.biz. These numbers also notably don't include sales on PC or PS4, where Genshin Impact also launched,

as well as Android sales in China. Genshin Impact has also been the highest revenue-generating title on both the App Store and Google Play since its launch, above Honor of Kings at $216 million and Player Unknown Battleground Mobile at $195 million. China alone was responsible for over $82 million of the game's revenue total, though on the App Store it was ranked number three for player spending after Honor of Kings and P-U-B-B-G mobile. In the U.S., Genshin Impact brought in $45 million during its first month. Quote, Genshin Impact is a great example of how Chinese developers are succeeding in the

by focusing on high production values, popular gameplay mechanics, and deep progress systems, said Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad to censor tower, end quote. Finally today, Amazon has filed a motion in court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Amazon practices false advertising when they say you can purchase something from Prime Video, quote-unquote purchase, quoting the Hollywood reporter. When an Amazon Prime Video user buys content on the platform, what they're really paying for is a limited license for on-demand viewing over an indefinite period of time, and they're warned of that in the company's terms of use. That's the company's argument for why a lawsuit over hypothetical future deletions of content should be dismissed. In April, Amanda Caudell sued Amazon

for unfair competition and false advertising. She claims the company, quote, secretly reserves the right to end consumers' access to content purchase through its prime video service. She filed her putative class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and any California residents who purchased video content from the service from April 25, 2016 to present. On Monday, Amazon filed a motion to dismiss her complaint, arguing that she lacks standing to sue because she hasn't been injured and noting that she's purchased 13 titles on Prime since filing her complaint. Further, Amazon argues the site's required user agreements explain that some content may later become unavailable. The most relevant agreement here, the Prime Video Terms of Use, is presented

to consumers every time they buy digital content on Amazon Prime Video. writes Amazon in response, these terms of use expressly state that purchasers obtain only a limited license to view video content and that purchase content may become unavailable due to provider license restriction or other reasons, end quote. Amazon argues that it doesn't matter whether Cordell actually bothered to read the fine print, end quote. Yeah, that's always the fine print about end-user license agreement fine print, isn't it? Also, timely reminder, as Andy Anacco tweeted, if you bought something but it's just electrons and aren't under your control, such as DRM-locked movie that streams to you from someone else's servers, you own nothing, end quote. So buying physical media is still the way to go if you actually value having access to a piece of art you truly love till the end of time.

There have been rumblings out there recently that Hollywood is making moves to stop producing physical DVD or Blu-ray copies of older movies. I was listening to a podcast recently discussing Disney doing this as they absorb the 20th century Fox catalog. This is something we need to fight everybody. Maybe no one really cares if they stop producing a DVD of Big Trouble in Little China someday, but when you can't stream it anywhere, you might care. I don't know how we're going to force them to do it. Because of the economics of it, I can see it makes sense to stop producing physical copies. But we need to fight the studios as they try to eliminate even the possibility of having a physical copy of content that they own. As William Bibiani tweeted, friendly reminder that the widespread industry pivot to streaming instead of physical media is very specifically a way to screw audiences out of their basic fundamental rights as consumers, end quote. And quoting Jake Cole on Twitter. Been saying it for years, folks, every single thrust of the tech sector from Amazon to Tesla envisions a world where you, the customer, own nothing, and instead lease your lives.

They are just landlords with ambition, end quote. That's all for today. Rainy here in Brooklyn. Depressing. Been a rainy cold October up here. Talk to you tomorrow.