In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • A hospital pays hackers in ransomware case
  • Yahoo’s CEO seeks to reassure mobile developers about the company
  • Two Twitter executives buy shares
  • Apple Pay launches in China

The details:

  • Payoff in ransomware case

A Los Angeles hospital paid a ransom of about $17,000 to hackers who infiltrated and disabled its computer network because paying was in the best interest of the hospital and the most efficient way to solve the problem, the medical center’s chief executive said Wednesday.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid the demanded ransom of 40 bitcoins — currently worth $16,664 dollars — after the network infiltration that began Feb. 5, CEO Allen Stefanek said in a statement.

The FBI is investigating the attack, often called “ransomware,” where hackers encrypt a computer network’s data to hold it “hostage,” providing a digital decryption key to unlock it for a price.

“The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key,” Stefanek said. “In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this.”

Ransomware attacks can happen to everyone from individuals to large institutions.

The hospital did not say whether anyone had recommended it pay off the hackers.

Computer security experts normally recommend people not pay the ransom, though at times law enforcement agencies suggest they do, said Adam Kujawa, Head of Malware Intelligence for Malwarebytes, a San Jose-based company that recently released anti-ransomware software.

It’s difficult to know how many victims pay the ransom, because many who do don’t reveal it.

“Unfortunately, a lot of companies don’t tell anybody if they had fallen victim to ransomware and especially if they have paid the criminals,” Kujawa said, “but I know from the experiences I hear about from various industry professionals that it’s a pretty common practice to just hand over the cash.”

  • Marissa Mayer says future is bright

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer found herself in an awkward situation at the struggling Internet company’s annual mobile developers’ conference.

She had to try to persuade an auditorium full of programmers and advertising partners Thursday that Yahoo will grow into an increasingly important player in the mobile market. That while the company is dramatically shrinking to appease restless shareholders threatening to overthrow management.

In an unusually brief appearance, Mayer said that the future still looks bright even though her job security and Yahoo’s future is on shaky ground.

Some shareholders want Yahoo to sell its Internet operations after 3 1/2 years of declining revenue under Mayer’s leadership. The company’s stock has fallen by more than 40 percent since 2014.

  • Twitter execs invest in company

Two Twitter executives have given the company a $2.25 million vote of confidence.

Documents filed Thursday revealed Twitter Executive Chairman Omid Kordestani spent about $2 million to buy 122,250 shares of the company’s stock earlier this week. A separate filing revealed Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto spent nearly $250,000 for 15,500 shares of Twitter.

The show of faith helped lift Twitter’s stock by more than 5 percent in Thursday’s trading.

Investors have been selling Twitter because the company’s messaging service has been struggling to broaden its audience. The slowdown has raised doubts about its prospects for future growth.

Despite Thursday’s gains, Twitter’s stock closed at $18.43, well below its November 2013 initial public offering price of $26 and even further from its peak price of $74.73 reached a month later.

  • Apple Pay launches in China

Apple Inc. on Thursday launched its smartphone-based payment system in China, where the electronic payments market is already dominated by an arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Apple said Apple Pay could be used with cards from 19 banks and “numerous merchants.” The merchants include supermarket Carrefour, fast food outlets McDonald’s and KFC, and convenience store 7-Eleven, according to a news release Wednesday from China UnionPay, the country’s state-owned credit card processor with which Apple is working.

Apple’s electronic payment system started in the United States in October 2014 and has since spread to Britain, Canada and Australia. Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain are coming this year.

Apple Pay is a late arrival in a Chinese electronic payments market that offers smartphone users not just online shopping but also the option to order taxis, send money to friends, pay bills and invest in wealth management funds.

The market is dominated by Alipay, an arm of the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. WeChat Payment, operated by social networking and gaming company Tencent Holdings Ltd, is also popular.

Apple’s system will allow UnionPay cardholders to make payments at retail stores via Apple iPhones and Apple Watches. The service also enables in-app payments on iPhones and iPads.

Apple has declined to say how the company and UnionPay would divide the costs and revenues of their venture.