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Updated 2025-12-19 17:45
Google sues 25 China-based scammers behind Lighthouse 'phishing for dummies' kit
600+ phishing websites and 116 of these use a Google logo Google has filed a lawsuit against 25 unnamed China-based scammers, which it claims have stolen more than 115 million credit card numbers in the US as part of the Lighthouse phishing operation....
OpenAI’s viability called into question by reported inference spending with Microsoft
Microsoft internal financials also suggest AI flag bearer is nowhere close to $13 billion in revenues OpenAI may be burning far more capital serving its GPT-family of models than previously thought. Leaked documents show the company paying more than $12 billion to Microsoft for compute power since 2024 and suggest much weaker revenue than it needs to pay for all those expenses....
Google apes Apple, swears cloud-based AI will keep your info private
We take your privacy, seriously Google, perhaps not the first name you'd associate with privacy, has taken a page from Apple's playbook and now claims that its cloud AI services will safeguard sensitive personal data handled by its Gemini model family....
First stellar Coronal Mass Ejection detected beyond our Sun
Red dwarf hurls plasma at speeds rarely seen from Sun, potentially stripping atmospheres from orbiting planets Astronomers have made the first definitive observation of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on a nearby star....
Attackers turned Citrix, Cisco 0-day exploits into custom-malware hellscape
Vendors (still) keep mum An "advanced" attacker exploited CitrixBleed 2 and a max-severity Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) bug as zero-days to deploy custom malware, according to Amazon Chief Information Security Officer CJ Moses....
Apple knits up $230 sock for your iPhone in time for Christmas
Fashion house behind Jobs' turtleneck helps with pricey new accessory line Apple, the reassuringly expensive US technology brand, is selling a sock in which iPhone owners can house their gadget....
VLC's keeper of the cone nets European free software gong
Jean-Baptiste Kempf lauded for keeping the media player free of crapware If you don't know what app will open a random media file (or URL), VLC is the answer. It runs on everything, plays anything, and it's free - thanks to Jean-Baptiste Kempf....
Broken wizard forces Microsoft to issue out-of-band Windows 10 patch
End of support? Not quite Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band update on November 11 to fix a malfunctioning enrollment wizard that prevented eligible Windows 10 users from accessing Extended Security Updates (ESU)....
Microsoft ships .NET 10 LTS and Visual Studio 2026, Copilot everywhere
Faster and easier to use but adopting the dev stack not without risks Microsoft has released C# 14 and .NET 10, a long-term support version, along with a bunch of related products including Visual Studio 2026 and Aspire 13. Copilot Free is included but devs will soon hit its limits....
Brussels weighs banning China from major EU research scheme
Draft Horizon Europe plan cites lack of IP protections and Beijing's civil-military fusion strategy The European Commission is preparing to block Chinese institutions from significant portions of its 95.5 billion ($110 billion) Horizon Europe research program, citing intellectual property risks and links between Chinese universities and Beijing's military....
MS Task Manager turns 30: Creator reveals how a 'very Unixy impulse' endured in Windows
Dave Plummer's 85 KB troubleshooting tool shipped with his home number on the code As Microsoft's Task Manager celebrates three decades - and grapples with its modern tendency to leave orphaned processes behind - its creator has shared the story of how the much loved troubleshooting tool came to be....
Broadcom creates a new Seal Of Approval for servers that run AI under VMware
This apparently makes VCF more extensible and open to partners Broadcom will let its hardware allies self-certify their boxes as compliant with a new spec it developed that describes rigs ready to run AI workloads under its VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud platform....
Mozilla's Firefox 145 is heeeeeere: Buffs up privacy, bloats AI
Improves tracking prevention, profile management, PDF editing, and Perplexity creeps into your address bar Firefox 145 is out, with more privacy, better profile handling, better image search for Google users... and, almost inevitably, more LLM bot integration....
Bitcoin bandit's £5B bubble bursts as cops wrap seven-year chase
Metropolitan Police lands lengthy sentence following 'complex' investigation The Metropolitan Police's seven-year investigation into a record-setting fraudster has ended after she was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison on Tuesday....
UK's Cyber Security and Resilience Bill makes Parliamentary debut
Various touch-ups added as MPs seek greater resilience to attacks on critical sectors UK government introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR) Bill to Parliament today, marking a significant overhaul of local cybersecurity legislation to sharpen the security posture of the most critical sectors....
Aviation watchdog says organized drone attacks will shut UK airports ‘sooner or later’
Skies are open for mischief as hard-to-trace drones and fast-moving cyber raids promise new wave of disruption Britain's aviation watchdog has warned it's only a matter of time before organized drone attacks bring UK airports to a standstill....
Retail giant Kingfisher rejects SAP ERP upgrade plan
'Don't just give me a price list or licensing module that spikes cost by 20x, show me the value,' says CTO SAP insists customers wanting "innovation" such as AI must upgrade to its latest platform for ERP, using prescribed cloud migration plans. Kingfisher - which operates 2,000 European retail stores including UK brands Screwfix and B&Q - rejected that approach....
Tablet market stalls because there’s not much new worth buying
Pre-tariff purchasing panic also helped to end 18-month growth run Shipments of tablet computers from minor vendors are on the slide, according to analyst firm IDC....
China hates crypto and scams, but is now outraged USA acquired bitcoin from a scammer
A new theory from the agency that brought us America hacked itself to blame Beijing' China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) has alleged a nation-state entity, probably the USA, was behind a 2020 attack on a bitcoin mining operation and by doing so has gone into bat for entities that Beijing usually blasts....
Australia’s spy boss says authoritarian nations ready to commit ‘high-impact sabotage’
Elite teams' are pondering cyber-attacks to turn off energy supply or telecoms networks The head of Australia's Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has warned that authoritarian regimes are growing more willing to disrupt or destroy critical infrastructure", using cyber-sabotage....
North Korean spies turn Google's Find Hub into remote-wipe weapon
KONNI espionage crew covertly abused Google's Find My Device feature to remotely factory-reset Android phones North Korean state-backed spies have found a new way to torch evidence of their own cyber-spying - by hijacking Google's "Find Hub" service to remotely wipe Android phones belonging to their South Korean targets....
Rocket Lab's Neutron slips to 2026: 'Our aim is to make it to orbit on the first try'
Hungry Hippo won't move to the launchpad until next year Aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider Rocket Lab has confirmed what many have long suspected: its "Hungry Hippo" Neutron rocket won't be hitting the launchpad until 2026 at the earliest....
EU's reforms of GDPR, AI slated by privacy activists for 'playing into Big Tech’s hands'
Lobbying efforts gain ground as proposals carve myriad holes into regulations Privacy advocates are condemning the European Commission's leaked plans to overhaul digital privacy legislation, accusing officials of bypassing proper legislative processes to favor Big Tech interests....
US taxpayers being kept in the dark over datacenter subsidies
Disclosure? We've heard of it The US datacenter industry is reaping huge benefits from state-level subsidies, but transparency around these incentives is limited and states that do calculate their returns find they are losing money on the deals....
OWASP Top 10: Broken access control still tops app security list
Risk list highlights misconfigs, supply chain failures, and singles out prompt injection in AI apps The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) just published its top 10 categories of application risks for 2025, its first list since 2021. It found that while broken access control remains the top issue, security misconfiguration is a strong second, and software supply chain issues are still prominent....
UK unveils roadmap for replacing animal testing
Years of development still needed but AI, 3D printing, and other alternative options on the horizon The UK Government has unveiled a roadmap to replace animal testing with AI-driven options and other alternatives, targeting the elimination of certain regulatory tests by the end of 2026....
Hitachi-owned GlobalLogic admits data stolen on 10k current and former staff
Clop's Oracle EBS exploit spree shows no sign of slowing, claims nearly 30 more casualties in media, finance, and tech. Digital engineering outfit GlobalLogic says personal data from more than 10,000 current and former employees was exposed in the wave of Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) attacks attributed to the Clop ransomware gang. The Hitachi-owned biz joins a growing roster of high-profile victims that also now includes The Washington Post and Allianz UK....
UK asks cyberspies to probe whether Chinese buses can be switched off remotely
Norwegian testers claim maker has remote access, while UK importer says supplier complies with the law UK governmental is working with the National Cyber Security Centre to understand and "mitigate" any risk that China-made imported electric buses could be remotely accessed and potentially disabled....
Battery trade war hits booming datacenter industry
Tariffs can't stop cheaper, better Chinese tech, says Jefferies. Tesla is Amercia's great hope Battery energy storage systems (BESS) could become standard at datacenters as AI infrastructure expand, with analysts forecasting 20 GW of capacity deployed over the next decade....
Cyber insurers paid out over twice as much for UK ransomware attacks last year
Massive increase in policy claims... and data doesn't even cover the major attacks of 2025 The number of successful cyber insurance claims made by UK organizations shot up last year, according to the latest figures from the industry's trade association....
UK's Ajax fighting vehicle arrives – years late and still sending crew to hospital
Continuous track of long awaited AFV hits the ground ... and the terrain is pretty bumpy The British Army just received its first new armored fighting vehicle (AFV) for nearly three decades, but it is years late, hit by rising costs, is still reportedly injuring its crew, and there are questions about whether it remains relevant in the age of drone warfare....
AI isn't throttling HPC. It is HPC
Your real problem: 40kW racks, melting datacenters and rising power bills Opinion In recent discussions with industry vendor sales/marketing types, I've been hearing that HPC demand is falling off while AI system demand is continuing to increase. I've also seen articles implying that AI is somehow displacing HPC. Huh?...
Intel CTO and AI boss quits to join OpenAI after just six months in the job
Sachin Katti was one of new Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan's first appointments Sachin Katti, the exec Intel promoted to chief technology and AI officer in April, will leave the x86 giant to join OpenAI after just six months in the job....
Superintelligence probably not happening, but AI will still reshape society, expert panel says
Ask 339 people, get 339 answers Experts may be skeptical about corporate AI hype to varying degrees, but they share the view that machine learning models will have a significant effect on society....
LLM side-channel attack could allow snoops to guess what you're talking about
Encryption protects content, not context Mischief-makers can guess the subjects being discussed with LLMs using a side-channel attack, according to Microsoft researchers. They told The Register that models from some providers, including Anthropic, AWS, DeepSeek, and Google, haven't been fixed, putting both personal users and enterprise communications at risk....
Secret setting hints haptic feedback coming to Windows 11 UI
Microsoft has generated some buzz about generating some buzz Most phones and tablets include little motors that buzz when you perform common actions such as typing, or when apps notify users of important events. Microsoft may be about to bring similar good vibrations to the PC with features that see Windows 11 make your mouse or touchpad tremble when you perform UI actions such as snapping windows into place....
AI companies keep publishing private API keys to GitHub
Security biz Wiz says 65% of top AI businesses leak keys and tokens Leading AI companies turn out to be no better at keeping secrets than anyone else writing code....
AI slop hits new high as fake country artist hits #1 on Billboard digital songs chart
It sounds a lot like everything else AI slop has reached a new level of ascendancy, as a country song by an AI artist has hit number one on Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales chart....
Altman sticks a different hand out, wants tax credits instead of gov loans
We can't let supply chain shortages burst the bubble boy's balloon Free money is always better than a loan! OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said he doesn't want government-backed loans to fuel his AI ambitions, but he's more than okay with the idea of Uncle Sam handing out tax credits under the US CHIPS Act to subsidize AI server production, bit barns, and grid components....
Critical federal cybersecurity funding set to resume as government shutdown draws to a close - for now
Resolution acquiesced to by 8 Dems includes CISA Act funding, layoff reversals, and could be easily undone The US Senate voted on Sunday to advance a short-term funding bill for the federal government, moving the country closer to ending its longest-ever shutdown. Part of the spending bill also restores critical cybersecurity programs that lapsed as the shutdown began....
Phishers try to lure 5K Facebook advertisers with fake business pages
One company alone was hit with more than 4,200 emails More than 5,000 businesses that use Facebook for advertising were bombarded by tens of thousands of phishing emails in a credential- and data-stealing campaign....
How to bluff your way to AI credibility with the right buzzwords
As Gartner offers another serving of word salad, it's time to know your skillatrophy from your pipeline choke A Gartner survey of 700 CIOs indicates that, by the end of the decade, all business IT work will involve AI, while bots will do 25 percent of that work by themselves. Good news: The analyst firm claims AI causes only one percent of job losses. Bad news: You'll have to learn some new jargon....
Ironclad OS project popping out Unix-like kernel in a unique mix of languages
There's more to safer systems languages than Rust If you're looking for a Unix-like, POSIX-compatible, real-time kernel, there's no shortage of projects trying to build one. Ironclad stands out for using the Ada programming language and its formally verifiable SPARK subset....
Another chance for JPEG XL? PDF will support format as 'preferred solution'
Format declared obsolete by Google Chrome team wins PDF support The PDF Association will add support for the JPEG XL (JXL) image format to the PDF spec, according to a recently published presentation from the org's European conference. This inclusion means that JXL may yet gain mainstream adoption, despite being declared obsolete by the Chromium team....
Windows 11 26H1 is coming ... for new processors only
It's OK to look: New Canary channel build supports specific silicon while 26H2 remains the main 2026 update Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11 version 26H1 is coming, but only with changes to support "specific silicon" - possibly Qualcomm's latest chips due next year - meaning ordinary users are unlikely to see it soon....
Russian broker pleads guilty to profiting from Yanluowang ransomware attacks
Aleksei Volkov faces years in prison, may have been working with other crews A Russian national will likely face several years in US prison after pleading guilty to a range of offenses related to his work with ransomware crews....
SpaceX and Musk called on to rescue China's Shenzhou-20 crew
Technical and political obstacles block collaboration following suspected space debris strike on craft SpaceX and Elon Musk are once again being called upon to rescue spacefarers - this time, the Chinese crew of Shenzhou-20, delayed on China's Tiangong space station after suspected space debris damage....
De-duplicating the desktops: Let's come together, right now
Here come old FlatPak, it comes grooving up slowly... Comment The tendency of Linux developers to reinvent wheels is no secret. It's not so much the elephant in the room, as the entire jet-propelled guided ark ship full of every known and unknown member of the Proboscidea from Ambelodon to Stegodon via deinotheres, elephants, mammoths and other mastodons....
Allianz UK joins growing list of Clop’s Oracle E-Business Suite victims
Insurance giant's UK arm says cybercriminals misattributed the real victim Allianz UK confirms it was one of the many companies that fell victim to the Clop gang's Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) attack after crims reported that they had attacked a subsidiary....
Three most important factors in enterprise IT: control, control, control
We're all out of it. How to get it back is an open secret Opinion When the first generation of microcomputers landed on desktops, they promised many things. Affordability, flexibility, efficiency, all the good things still selling IT to this day. Mostly, though, they offered control....
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