A ransomware attack struck the Maryland Department of Health on Dec. 4, driving the systems offline in an effort to contain the spread. The outage has spurred manual COVID-19 reporting.

Here's the concept: Replace the traditional operating system with a relational database, "built on bare metal" said MIT's Michael Coden, with applications input as stored procedures. The result just may be improved resiliency, with faster detection of and recovery from cyber incidents. Now the team just needs more companies to raise their hands and give the prototype a try.

When storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and other natural disasters strike, they impact life across wide swaths of the country. They also impact the ability to access financial services and the potential for bad actors to get in amid the chaos.