Hackers are going after U.S. hospitals with a fresh wave of cyberattacks this week just as coronavirus cases surge around the country. From a report: Eskenazi Health, a health-care service provider that operates a 315-bed hospital, inpatient facilities, and community health centers throughout Indianapolis, was crippled by a ransomware attack that began between 3:30 and 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, a spokesperson told The Daily Beast. By 8 a.m. Eskenazi Health was turning ambulances away and diverting patients to other hospitals as a result of the ransomware incident, the spokesperson said. "A ransomware attack happened," an Eskenazi spokesperson told The Daily Beast, confirming that all of Eskenazi Health's locations -- its hospital, its inpatient facilities, and its community health centers -- are impacted. The spokesperson added that Eskenazi Health was working to contain the ransomware by shutting down some services and operations in order to try to keep the malware from spreading through its systems.

"They took all of our systems down so they wouldn't get breached," the spokesperson said, confirming email systems and electronic medical records were still down as of Thursday evening. Eskenazi Health is not alone. Sanford Health, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota-headquartered health system which includes 46 hospitals and care locations in 26 states and 10 countries, said in a statement Thursday it had been hit with a cyberattack in recent days as well. Sanford Health did not confirm whether it was the victim of ransomware, but president and CEO Bill Gassen confirmed to The Daily Beast it was working to "contain" the impact. In both the Sanford Health and Eskenazi Health cases, patient data and employee data were not affected, officials said.

Facebook's WhatsApp messaging unit blasted Apple's plan to monitor sexually exploitative images of children on iPhones as bad for privacy, opening a new front in the battle between two of the world's biggest tech companies. From a report: "This approach introduces something very concerning into the world," Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said Friday. "We will not adopt it at WhatsApp." Apple a day earlier said it planned to release an update for U.S. users later this year designed to identify and report collections of sexually exploitative images of children, as part of a series of changes it is preparing for the iPhone to protect children from sexual predators.

WhatsApp's position deepens the battle between Facebook and Apple about data. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has long bemoaned what he sees as too much power Apple has over the social-media giant's business. Apple has made the protection of user information on the iPhones and some other devices a key part of its pitch to consumers and taken shots at Facebook for its data-collection practices. Tensions have intensified in recent months as Apple rolled out a new privacy feature for the iPhone that restricts Facebook's ability to collect data. Mr. Zuckerberg said Apple was using its platform to interfere with how Facebook apps work. At the heart of the latest dispute is the question of whether tech companies can insert software that identifies inappropriate or illegal content without compromising privacy. Apple claims to have found a way to do this. WhatsApp, and Apple's critics, liken this software to a surveillance system.

Taiwanese computer hardware vendor GIGABYTE has suffered a ransomware attack, and hackers are currently threatening to release more than 112 GB of business data on the dark web unless the company agrees to their ransom demands. An anonymous reader shares a report: The Taiwanese company, primarily known for its high-performance motherboards, confirmed the attack in a phone call and in a message on its (now-down) Taiwanese website. A spokesperson said the incident did not impact production systems. Only a few internal servers at its Taiwanese headquarters have been affected and have now been taken down and isolated. The company is currently in the process of investigating how the hackers breached its systems, stole files, and encrypted local copies. Local law enforcement has also been notified.