The big picture: The healthcare sector has become a lucrative target for cybercriminals, given the abundance of exploitable data and the often inadequate cybersecurity measures affecting many providers. Ascension, which operates 118 hospitals and hundreds of other facilities nationwide, was evidently unprepared for an attack of this magnitude, despite its size and resources. In a filing with the Maine Attorney General's office published on December 20, the American healthcare giant revealed that a staggering 5.6 million people had their personal and medical data exposed in a cyberattack earlier this year.According to Ascension, the breach occurred on February 29 but went undetected until May 8. The attack potentially allowed hackers to access a wealth of sensitive information, including payment details, insurance information, Social Security numbers, addresses, and dates of birth. While Ascension stated that no evidence suggests patient electronic health records were directly compromised, the scale of the breach remains alarming.As for how a massive healthcare system fell victim to such a severe hack, it came down to a classic error: an employee accidentally downloaded a malicious file disguised as legitimate. The healthcare provider admitted in June that it was "an honest mistake."The cyberattack forced Ascension to postpone surgeries and appointments at some facilities, while others had to turn away ambulances. Patients experienced lengthy wait times, and multiple facilities were without access to electronic records for weeks after the breach. The company now says it is working to reschedule delayed procedures and regain its footing.The financial impact was significant as well. Ascension reported an 8-12 percent drop in patient volume during May and June compared to 2023, attributing the decline directly to the disruptions caused by the attack. // Related StoriesCompounding the situation, the breach followed closely on the heels of the unprecedented Change Healthcare cyberattack, which compromised the data of over 100 million Americans earlier in 2024. That incident, considered the most damaging healthcare hack in US history, also impacted Ascension.In response to these two major breaches, Ascension says it has diversified its claims clearinghouses to "better protect itself from future incidents."The breach ranks as the sixth-largest healthcare data incident ever reported in terms of the number of people affected.Ransomware attacks, in general, have been on the rise, with 2024 shaping up to be another record-breaking year. They are also becoming increasingly costly. A recent report indicates that the median ransom payment rose to $2.54 million last year a staggering 41 times larger than the previous year's median of $62,500.

When it comes to home theater sound, pulse-pounding audio is a dream many of us have but may not have the available space to achieve. Fortunately, there are plenty of soundbars on the market these days, serving as a crucial middle-ground between the tiny speakers on your TV and a full-fledged Atmos configuration. And today, theres a great discount on a top-rated soundbar from JBL:For a limited time, when you purchase the JBL 5.1 Channel Soundbar with Wireless Sub (model JBL2GBAR51IMBLKAM), youll only pay $260. At full price, this model sells for $600.Engineered to emulate a complete 5.1 surround system, this JBL soundbar-subwoofer combo is far more than a simple enhancement for your TV. With HDMI and digital optical connectivity, youll be up and running in no time. Theres also a USB port should you want to connect a flash drive with external media. Power it on and let the five full-range drivers and two tweeters envelop you in a massive soundstage, complete with highs, mids, and lows. Speaking of lows, the included wireless sub has a 10-inch woofer, which does a terrific job of bringing the bass!RelatedYoull also be able to switch over to Bluetooth mode for wireless music streaming from a phone, tablet, or PC. You can even connect the soundbar to Wi-Fi to take advantage of Chromecast and AirPlay 2. And thanks to JBL MultiBeam technology, this 5.1 bar automatically calibrates to deliver the best sound based on the room its hanging out in.Its hard to say how long this discount is going to last, but its one of the best soundbar deals weve seen since Black Friday. Take $340 off the JBL 5.1 Soundbar with Wireless Sub when you order today. You may also want to check out our lists of the best Bose deals for some great JBL alternatives, as well as our roundup of the best Bluetooth speaker deals for even more audio markdowns!Editors Recommendations

Nothing says home for the holidays like a massive QLED TV mounted to your living room wall. Throw in a soundbar and a 4K Blu-ray player (yes they still make those) and youve got yourself a complete home theater system. But you dont want to purchase just any TV for your media room, because a big TV with lackluster specs is going to look plain cruddy. Thats why were bringing the following Hisense offer to your attention:Right now, when you purchase the Hisense 100-inch U76N QLED, youll only pay $2,000. On paper, thats still a healthy chunk of change to part ways with, but at full price, this model sells for $3,000. That $1,000 you saved can be invested in one of the best soundbar deals of the week, or maybe youve got a rainy day fund that could use a nice deposit.One of the main reasons we recommend this TV is its phenomenal picture quality and 4K upscaling. Thanks to full array local dimming and Hisenses Peak Brightness 1000 technology, this monolith of a TV is able to deliver a wide color gamut, excellent contrast levels, and unbelievable brightness. Whether youre watching or playing HDR or SDR content, the U76N optimizes every frame to ensure youre getting the best picture possible at all times.RelatedDelivering up to a 144Hz refresh rate, this Hisense set is engineered for top-notch gaming, too. Features like AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Dolby Vision gaming ensure all your PS5 or Xbox Series X sessions have little to no input lag and lightning-fast response times, and VRR and ALLM support automatically switches the U76N over to the Game Mode Pro preset when a console is detected. Youll also be able to access streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+, along with numerous free live-streaming TV channels with the Hisenses Google TV platform.Heres hoping this 100-inch marvel stays on sale for a long time. Like many other Best Buy deals and Amazon deals, though, this massive markdown could be gone tomorrow. So if youre interested, we recommend hopping on the train ASAP! Save $1,000 on the Hisense 100-inch U76N QLED when you order today, and definitely take a gander at our roundup of the best QLED TV deals, too!Editors Recommendations

Earlier this year, Beats finally updated the Beats Solo3 with the release of the Beats Solo 4 and theyre 50% off at multiple retailers for the holidays.The Beats Solo line of on-ear headphones was originally released in 2009 (back when they were the Beats by Dr. Dre Solo), and since then, theyve been the companys most popular line of headphones. But the Beats Solo3 were getting long in the tooth, and it was eight years until we finally saw the Beats Solo 4.Visually, the Beats Solo 4 look almost identical to the Solo3. Its under the hood where Beats made the majority of the improvements. The Solo 4 improved the battery for an extra 10 hours of battery life (up from 40 to 50), new 40mm drivers that are designed to reduce distortion, USB-C charging and USB-C lossless and high-res audio, and personalized spatial audio with head tracking (if paired with an iOS device).Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsAmong the the biggest improvements are the softer earpads and less clamping force (although they stay securely on your head), which make the Beats Solo 4 more comfortable than the Solo3. On-ear headphones tend to cause headaches when worn for a couple of hours, but youre not likely to run into that issue with the Beats Solo 4. Ive worn them for hours at a time, almost forgetting that they were still on my head. Theres a drawback for glasses wearers, though because on-ear headphones press against your ears and not directly on your skull, it can be uncomfortable wearing glasses with the Beats Solo 4. (This is a drawback of all on-ear headphones.)RelatedStill, if youre looking for a set of headphones that deliver a bright, clear sound while still having good support in the bass, the Beats Solo 4 are an excellent choice, especially for the sale price of $100.Editors Recommendations

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Losing game? YouTuber won DMCA fight with fake Nintendo lawyer by detecting spoofed email Gamer urges YouTube to change DMCA takedown process to end copyright abuse. Ashley Belanger Dec 27, 2024 2:16 pm | 1 Credit: PHILIP FONG / Contributor | AFP Credit: PHILIP FONG / Contributor | AFP Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA brave YouTuber has managed to defeat a fake Nintendo lawyer improperly targeting his channel with copyright takedowns that could have seen his entire channel removed if YouTube issued one more strike.Sharing his story with The Verge, Dominik "Domtendo" Neumayera German YouTuber who has broadcasted play-throughs of popular games for 17 yearssaid that it all started when YouTube removed some videos from his channel that were centered on The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Those removals came after a pair of complaints were filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and generated two strikes. Everyone on YouTube knows that three strikes mean you're out and off the platform permanently.Suddenly at risk of losing the entire channel he had built on YouTube, Neumayer was stunned, The Verge noted, partly because most game companies consider "Let's Play" videos like his to be free marketing, not a threat to their business. And while Nintendo has been known to target YouTubers with DMCA takedowns, it generally historically took no issues with accounts like his.For many YouTubers, a DMCA takedown request is considered too risky to challenge, even if it's obviously fake. The risk of losing their channels outweighs the risk of losing income from removing specific videos at issue, so users often choose to delete content voluntarily, rather than defend their content. Copyright trolls try to benefit from this, getting content removed that otherwise would remain on the platform and sometimes attempting to push users to submit unnecessary payments.No one knows how much copyright abuse occurs on YouTube. According to YouTube, about 6 percent of removals from July to December 2023 were abusive, along with 10 times more attempted abusive removals. But if a significant number of users never flag abuseout of fear they could be sued for contributing to copyright infringementthen the true figure could be higher.Neumayer clearly took a long hard look at the DMCA takedown requests before making any rash decisions about submitting to the claims. That's when he noticed something strange. The requests were signed by "Tatsumi Masaaki, Nintendo Legal Department, Nintendo of America," but the second one curiously "came from a personal account at an encrypted email service: 'tatsumi-masaaki@protonmail.com,'" The Verge reported.Defending his livelihood, Neumayer started asking questions. At first, that led to his videos being reinstated. But that victory was short-lived, as the supposed Nintendo lawyer only escalated his demands, spooking the YouTuber into voluntarily removing some videos, The Verge reported, while continuing to investigate the potential troll.Reaching out directly to Nintendo helped, but questions remainThe Verge has all the receipts, sharing emails from the fake lawyer and detailing Neumayer's fight blow-for-blow. Neumayer ultimately found that there was a patent lawyer with a similar name working for Nintendo in Japan, although he could not tell if that was the person sending the demands and Nintendo would not confirm to The Verge if Tatsumi Masaaki exists.Only after contacting Nintendo directly did Neumayer finally get some information he could work with to challenge the takedowns. Reportedly, Nintendo replied, telling Neumayer that the fake lawyer's proton email address "is not a legitimate Nintendo email address and the details contained within the communication do not align with Nintendo of America Inc.s enforcement practices."Nintendo promised to investigate further, as Neumayer continued to receive demands from the fake lawyer. It took about a week after Nintendo's response for "Tatsumi" to start to stand down, writing in a stunted email to Neumayer, "I hereby retract all of my preceding claims." But even then, the troll went down fighting, The Verge reported.The final messages from "Tatsumi" claimed that he'd only been suspended from filing claims and threatened that other Nintendo lawyers would be re-filing them. He then sent what The Verge described as "in some ways the most legit-looking email yet," using a publicly available web tool to spoof an official Nintendo email address while continuing to menace Neumayer.It was that spoofed email that finally ended the faade, though, The Verge reported. Neumayer detected the spoof by checking the headers and IDing the tool used.Although this case of copyright trolling is seemingly over, Neumayeralong with a couple other gamers trolled by "Tatsumi"remain frustrated with YouTube, The Verge reported. After his fight with the fake Nintendo lawyer, Neumayer wants the streaming platform to update its policies and make it easier for YouTubers to defend against copyright abuse.Back in May, when Ars reported on a YouTuber dismayed by a DMCA takedown over a washing machine chime heard on his video, a YouTube researcher and director of policy and advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Katharine Trendacosta told Ars that YouTube's current process discourages YouTubers from disputing copyright strikes.Every idiot can strike every YouTuber and there is nearly no problem to do so. Its insane, Neumayer said. It has to change NOW.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 1 Comments

knit one, purl two The physics of ugly Christmas sweaters The ways a sweater is folded, stretched or rumpled determines how it settles into one of several resting meta-states. Jennifer Ouellette Dec 27, 2024 2:00 pm | 0 Not everyone can rock an ugly Christmas sweater like Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Credit: Miramax Films Not everyone can rock an ugly Christmas sweater like Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Credit: Miramax Films Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn more'Tis the season for many holiday traditions, including the Ugly Christmas Sweateryou know, those 1950s-style heavy knits featuring some kind of cartoonish seasonal decoration, like snowflakes, Santa Claus, orin the case of Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. "Its obnoxious and tacky, but also fuzzy and kind of wholesomethe fashion equivalent of a Hallmark Christmas movie (with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek)," as CNN's Marianna Cerini recently observed.Fashion (or lack thereof) aside, sweaters and other knitted fabric are also fascinating to physicists and mathematicians. Case in point: a recent paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters examining the complex mechanics behind the many resting shapes a good Jersey knit can form while at rest.Knitted fabrics are part of a class of intertwined materialswhich also includes birds' nests, surgical knots, knotted shoelaces, and even the degradation of paper fibers in ancient manuscripts. Knitted fabrics are technically a type of metamaterial: an engineered material that gets its properties not from the base materials but from their designed structures. The elasticity (aka, stretchiness) of knitted fabrics is an emergent property: the whole is more than the sum of its parts. How those components (strands of yarn) are arranged at an intermediate scale (the structure) determines the macro scale properties of the resulting fabric.Knitted fabrics are composed of an interlocking series of slip knots composed of a single thread hooking back and forth on itself. To make a knitted stitch, you pull the slip knot through the front of the fabric; to make a purl stitch, you pull it through the back of the fabric. Experienced knitters know how to combine those stitches in many different ways, playing with the topology and creating intricate new shapesincluding elaborate 3D shapes, like a stuffed rabbit. And changing the topology will also change the emergent properties (like elasticity).In 2018, a team of French physicists developed a rudimentary mathematical model to describe the deformation of a common type of knit. Their work was inspired when co-author Frdric Lechenault watched his pregnant wife knitting baby booties and blankets, and he noted how the items would return to their original shape even after being stretched. With a few colleagues, he was able to boil the mechanics down to a few simple equations, adaptable to different stitch patterns. It all comes down to three factors: the "bendiness" of the yarn, the length of the yarn, and how many crossing points are in each stitch.A simpler stitch A simplified model of how yarns interact Credit: J. Crassous/University of Rennes One of the co-authors of that 2018 paper, Samuel Poincloux of Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, also co-authored this latest study with two other colleagues, Jrme Crassous (University of Rennes in France) and Audrey Steinberger (University of Lyon). This time around, Poincloux was interested in the knotty problem of predicting the rest shape of a knitted fabric, given the yarn's length by stitchan open question dating back at least to a 1959 paper.It's the complex geometry of all the friction-producing contact zones between the slender elastic fibers that makes such a system too difficult to model precisely, because the contact zones can rotate or change shape as the fabric moves. Poincloux and his cohorts came up with their own more simplified model.The team performed experiments with a Jersey stitch knit (aka a stockinette), a widely used and simple knit consisting of a single yarn (in this case, a nylon thread) forming interlocked loops. They also ran numerical simulations modeled on discrete elastic rods coupled with dry contacts with a specific friction coefficient to form meshes.The results: Even when there were no external stresses applied to the fabric, the friction between the threads served as a stabilizing factor. And there was no single form of equilibrium for a knitted sweater's resting shape; rather, there were multiple metastable states that were dependent on the fabric's historythe different ways it had been folded, stretched, or rumpled. In short, Knitted fabrics do not have a unique shape when no forces are applied, contrary to the relatively common belief in textile literature, said Crassous.DOI: Physical Review Letters, 2024. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.248201 (About DOIs).Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 0 Comments

Mission creep? OpenAI defends for-profit shift as critical to sustain humanitarian mission Elon Musk may be the last obstacle to stop OpenAIs for-profit shift. Ashley Belanger Dec 27, 2024 11:58 am | 26 Credit: Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu Credit: Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOpenAI has finally shared details about its plans to shake up its core business by shifting to a for-profit corporate structure.On Thursday, OpenAI posted on its blog, confirming that in 2025, the existing for-profit arm will be transformed into a Delaware-based public benefit corporation (PBC). As a PBC, OpenAI would be required to balance its shareholders' and stakeholders' interests with the public benefit. To achieve that, OpenAI would offer "ordinary shares of stock" while using some profits to further its mission"ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity"to serve a social good.To compensate for losing control over the for-profit, the nonprofit would have some shares in the PBC, but it's currently unclear how many will be allotted. Independent financial advisors will help OpenAI reach a "fair valuation," the blog said, while promising the new structure would "multiply" the donations that previously supported the nonprofit."Our plan would result in one of the best resourced nonprofits in history," OpenAI said. (During its latest funding round, OpenAI was valued at $157 billion.)OpenAI claimed the nonprofit's mission would be more sustainable under the proposed changes, as the costs of AI innovation only continue to compound. The new structure would set the PBC up to control OpenAI's operations and business while the nonprofit would "hire a leadership team and staff to pursue charitable initiatives in sectors such as health care, education, and science," OpenAI said.Some of OpenAI's rivals, such as Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI, use a similar corporate structure, OpenAI noted.Critics had previously pushed back on this plan, arguing that humanity may be better served if the nonprofit continues controlling the for-profit arm of OpenAI. But OpenAI argued that the old way made it hard for the Board "to directly consider the interests of those who would finance the mission and does not enable the non-profit to easily do more than control the for-profit."We have a nonprofit and a for-profit today, and we will continue to have both, with the for-profits success enabling the nonprofit to be well funded, better sustained, and in a stronger position for the mission," OpenAI said.Musk plans to stand in OpenAIs wayOpenAI dedicated a substantial portion of the blog to explaining how its mission has changed over timewhich is the subject of a lawsuit Musk filed alleging that Altman fraudulently induced $44 million in seed funding by promising Musk that OpenAI would be a permanent nonprofit with open-source technology. Musk has repeatedly held that he only invested in OpenAI out of fears that if a for-profit corporation controlled AI, it would likely pursue profits to the detriment of humanity.But OpenAI defends its evolution into a for-profit structure as critical to developing AI that benefits humanity. In the blog, OpenAI explained that in the "early days," OpenAI started as a research lab in 2015 with the goal of "advancing digital intelligence in the way most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return."To achieve this goal, the company went with a nonprofit structure, raising $137 million in donations, of whichOpenAI's blog pointedly seemed to downplay"less than a third" was "from Elon."Musk left OpenAI in 2018. In his lawsuit, he said that Altman's recasting OpenAI as a "moneymaking endeavor" turned Musk into a "fool who is essentially providing free funding to a startup."OpenAI has denied Musk's claims. Around the time of Musk's departure, OpenAI's blog explained, "it became clear that the most advanced AI would continuously use more and more compute" and "therefore far more capital" than OpenAI could "obtain with donations."That's why OpenAI transitioned to a bespoke structure in 2019, creating a for-profit arm controlled by the nonprofit, "with a capped profit share for investors and employees."Once Musk was out of the funding picture, Microsoft quickly showed up, providing OpenAI with $1 billion in funding in 2019, which helped pave the way for ChatGPT's explosive release in 2022. Then in 2023, Microsoft exclusively licensed GPT-4 and all of OpenAI's "pre-AGI" technology, further cementing the link between the two entities.Now, OpenAI needs even more funding but alleges that investors are demanding "conventional equity and less structural bespokeness" before backing OpenAI's efforts, which includes supporting a pivot in its research. As OpenAI prepares to release more products, the company has entered a "new research paradigm," its blog said, "with our o-series models demonstrating new reasoning capabilities that scale with 'thinking' compute, stacking together with compute for training."To support this new direction, OpenAI needs to ensure it can keep up with competitors investing "hundreds of billions of dollars" into AI development. Thats the only way to support the nonprofit's current mission, OpenAI said, or else OpenAI risks losing investors at a time when "we once again need to raise more capital than wed imagined."OpenAI's plans to restructure remain controversial, partly because under the new structure, Altman notably would receive equity in the for-profit company for the first time, potentially securing as much as a 7 percent stake.To critics, Altman's potential for immense personal gains under the new structure reflects a stark departure from Altman's previous stance that accepting equity in the company might conflict with OpenAI's mission to serve humanitynot enrich its leadership.According to the New York Times, OpenAI has been plotting this shift in corporate structure ever since the nonprofit arm's board tried and failed to oust Altman as CEO, feeling that he no longer could be trusted to ensure OpenAI was built to better humanity. Microsoft moved to protect Altman, and after he was reinstated, new board members were brought onboard and Microsoft took on a new role as board observer.As OpenAI prepares to "become more than a lab and a startup" and pivot to instead "become an enduring company" in 2025, Musk's lawsuit may be the final obstacle standing in the way of OpenAI's plans.Musk has long been among OpenAI's biggest critics, and this December, Musk asked a US district court in California to block OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit. He also wants the court to void OpenAI's exclusive license to Microsoft.Musk and OpenAI are currently locking horns over Musk's request for an injunction that would pause OpenAI's plans while the court battle plays out. Unsurprisingly, OpenAI has opposed that motion, partly by arguing that Musk has not shown that there's evidence that OpenAI's current business and operations are restricting trade or that Musk will be "irreparably harmed" if the injunction isn't granted. To the contrary, in its blog, OpenAI highlighted how competition is "vibrant" in AI, while claiming that "OpenAIs pursuit of leadership in the field can inspire other organizations to advance" the public good mission too.Musk is expected to file his response to OpenAI's opposition today, but this court battle will drag on for months, potentially slowing down OpenAI's transformation. A hearing on OpenAI's motion to dismiss isn't scheduled until the end of May.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 26 Comments