The Register

Court gives him new rules: Use one laptop, while living with the 'rents. US authorities have charged FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF) with attempting to bribe Chinese officials with $40 million worth of cryptocurrency in exchange for unfreezing trading accounts.…

Coincidentally lays off techies in its identity team Microsoft kicked off its day-long Microsoft Secure virtual event on Tuesday by stressing the need for IT departments to manage user and application identities across multiple cloud environments.…

Big is not always beautiful Just days after lifting the covers off the 13th-gen Core vPro CPUs, Intel has revealed the latest NUC line of miniature PCs, giving a decent chunk of compute power in a space-saving 4x4in form factor.…

Chinese fast fashion vendor could be this season's TikTok thanks to alleged tax evasion, slave labour, toxic goods, and an outsized carbon footprint Another battle is brewing over a Chinese tech startup that's become a big hit in the USA. This time all eyes are on fast fashion e-commerce outfit SHEIN, which allegedly keeps its prices low by exploiting a loophole to avoid paying taxes.…

Move over, magic crystals – electric syrup is here A research team from Michigan State University (MSU) has discovered a liquid they say "defies a simple theoretical explanation" because it has piezoelectric characteristics.…

iGiant urged to think different about workers' rights Apple has been accused of unlawfully firing and threatening pro-union retail store workers in two complaints filed by the Communications Workers of America with the National Labor Relations Board. …

Please, let's not go all Skynet on this: Baidu has previously said ERNIE just isn't that impressive up close Baidu's ERNIE chatbot, launched with great fanfare two weeks ago, has gone missing.…

Cloud and AI bundled into an entity that’s free to seek its own funds or list Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has decided to break itself into six smaller entities – one of which will include its hyperscale public cloud.…

It's a juicy market that welcomes foreign investment, National development boss reminds Tim Cook Senior Chinese government officials have urged Apple CEO Tim Cook to improve the security and privacy features of his company's products.…

It's not a smoking gun, it's 'a loaded gun' suggests NSA's Rob Joyce TikTok is China's "Trojan horse," according to Rob Joyce, who heads the cyber security unit of America's National Security Agency. …

A reminder you can still opt-out Amazon says its Sidewalk mesh network of Echo smart speakers and Ring doorbells can now cover nine out of 10 Americans, and is ready for broader integration by third-party device makers.…

Replit after me Google has tapped up IDE developer Replit to bake the startup's AI-powered code-suggestion tools into its cloud platform so that it can attempt to challenge Microsoft's GitHub Copilot.…

Issue identified in February but owners of older kit weren't warned Happy belated Patch Tuesday from Cupertino: Apple has issued security updates for almost every piece of code it slings - including a fix for a vulnerability in older iOS devices the iGiant believes is under attack right now.…

It starts with chat bots inventing D&D campaigns and ends with AI all over your Excel and network logs Microsoft's sprint to push generative AI into all parts of its broad portfolio is reaching the cybersecurity realm with the introduction today of Security Copilot, a GPT-4-based service that might assist security teams pushing back against modern threats.…

Starting to see a pattern here? Judge seems to think so Updated Google Chat histories handed over by the web giant in ongoing Android antitrust litigation reveal the biz has been systematically destroying evidence, according to those suing the big G.…

Data guarding requires better 'education, better technology, and better automation' Interview If there was ever an area where default passwords reign and basic security hygiene is terrible, it's databases. …

Meanwhile technology-driven job creation is possible, Goldman Sachs says Research from global investment bank Goldman Sachs claims that as many as 300 million jobs could be at risk from automation powered by generative AI.…

Crimes Clearview has helped solve include murder and the devastating scourge of ... shoplifting US police have used Clearview AI facial recognition tech to conduct nearly one million searches since the company launched in 2017 – but its founder and CEO said he's still unwilling to testify to its accuracy.…

Could have something to do with Ubuntu kicking Flatpak. Meanwhile, SUSE may be pulling up closer to rival Red Hat openSUSE is doing well: downloads are increasing, and a new version of the stable-release-cycle openSUSE, Leap 15.5, is coming soon.…

Staff may head for exit, followed by customers, it would 'decimate' ops, says CEO Newport Wafer Fab may become commercially unviable if UK government insists on its sale under national security legislation, according to current owner Nexperia, which is challenging the decision in court.…

Is there a role for a poll for just Blue Tickers, not proles, or is this troll a social media own goal? Opinion Even those who do spend $7* a month to get (or keep) that treasured blue tick next to their name on Twitter may be peeved to find out that soon only verified users will be allowed to vote in polls on the platform. Bring it on: electronic ballots where only 10 people click.…

Consultation with the Treasury puts non-fungible token proposals under review In what can only be described as a typically British piece of dithering, the Treasury said it has decided to put plans for the Royal Mint to launch an NFT — announced with great fanfare last year — on hold.…

Everything from inflation, to war in Ukraine and high interest rates 'point to recession', says CEO in memo to staff Exclusive Cloud reseller and integrator Rackspace Technology is kicking off a restructuring process involving the loss of nearly 4 percent of the global workforce due to a slowdown in cloud computing growth rates.…

Thought Icelandic glacier water was rare? How about chugging down some Moon water Scientists in China have found glass beads contained in lunar soil might hold enough water to provide a resource for future lunar missions.…

Microsoft's attention has moved on, but flame still alive If you miss the simplicity of putting an app together with drag-and-drop in VB, there are some alternatives that might tickle your tastebuds.…

Aimed to make it twice as fast, more consistent and more compatible Microsoft has released preview versions of an improved Teams desktop client for Windows that it aimed to make "twice as fast while using half the system resources" while also reducing user confusion and improving interface consistency.…

Planes are taking off before check in time, healthcare and finance sectors also in a mess On Thursday, March 23rd, 2023, the government of Lebanon postponed the start of Daylight Savings Time (DST) just two days before the time change was scheduled to occur.…

Offering wisdom on AI signals the Alibaba boss is in Beijing's good books again Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has appeared in his homeland after over a year away, visiting a school and sharing commentary on the state of AI.…

'Our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos' Here's a conspiracy theory for you to consider: the war in Ukraine has shown that the West can't produce ammunition fast enough to sustain even that limited conflict. China noticed, and therefore had TikTok plan three energy-hungry datacenters close to an ammunition factory, threatening its electricity supply.…

Code of conduct complaints were not publicized in case it disrupted voting The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the regional internet registry for 56 nations, has revealed that it was threatened with an injunction that would have disrupted its elections if it named candidates found to have breached its election nominee code of conduct. Voters therefore went to the polls without knowing about findings of code breaches.…

Executive Order has loopholes for government spyware or American-made commercial spyware US president Joe Biden on Monday issued an Executive Order on Prohibition on Use by the United States Government of Commercial Spyware that Poses Risks to National Security – a title that is not quite as simple it seems.…

There is no honor among chatbots Criminals are already using ChatGPT to commit crimes, Europol said in a Monday report that details how AI language models can fuel fraud, cybercrime, and terrorism.…

In addition to $100k given to LockBit New York law firm Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy and Bach (HPMB) has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a data-breach lawsuit related to the now-notorious Hafnium Microsoft Exchange attacks that siphoned sensitive data from victims around the world. …

We're sure Elon will be first in line as a test subject Neuralink is reportedly trying to partner up with neurosurgery clinics to carry out clinical trials testing its invasive brain-computer interface devices on humans.…

Dot-org vows to appeal after judge decides digitizing printed titles and lending them out isn't fair use Analysis A federal judge rejected the Internet Archive's claim that it has a fair use right to lend out a digital copy of each printed book that it has purchased, raising the possibility of it facing huge damages for copyright infringement.…

Sounds like some IT teams are due for some training Amtrak trains across the US are back on schedule after a server breakdown forced the rail service to cancel dozens of routes across the American Midwest and parts of California.…

Not what cost-cutting companies want to hear right now. Maybe they should hang onto those engineers? The rate at which IT infrastructure outages happen seems to have fallen in recent years, but the flip side is that those that do occur are becoming more pricey for organizations suffering them.…

What to expect? 16 inch model, a desktop case, and both Intel and AMD variants Modular repairable laptops vendor Framework has lifted the covers off models that are coming later this year – including one with a 16 inch display.…

Mission accomplished? Meanwhile Musk's Starlink's V2 sats experience de-orbit-worthy 'issues' Satellite comms operator OneWeb says its constellation is complete, with the latest launch bringing its total of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to 618, although it will add further launches for resiliency and redundancy.…

It's finger-linking.... what happened to my $$$? Police in India announced late last week they arrested four individuals accused of running fake websites in which they sold fraudulent franchises, including for fast-food chicken restaurant, KFC.…

Benioff gets a pat on the head and an undefined reprieve Salesforce and Elliott Investment Management have issued a joint statement saying the activist investor, which took a multi-billion-dollar stake in the CRM giant in January, is not nominating directors to the board.…

A consumer campaign group's food hall of shame: sticky tape instead of loo rolls, dog chews for chicken breasts What’s on your lunchtime menu today? For some poor sucker it might be toilet paper that provides the wrapping for their sandwich, or perhaps a dog chew instead of that tender grilled chicken breast they’d hoped for.…

Plus OIG finds Uncle Sam fibbed over Login.gov In brief A team of hackers from French security shop Synacktiv have won $100,000 and a Tesla Model 3 after subverting the Muskmobile's entertainment system, and from there opening up the car's core management systems.…

Get your staff and processes lined up and ready to go Interview The woods are full of IT sales teams promising the moon when it comes to locking down databases, yet all the tech fixes in the world won't help you if the staff don't know what to do.…

ByteDance with the devil if you dare Opinion As country after country bans TikTok from official systems, it’s fair to ask what’s so dodgy about a social network filled with dance crazes, makeup advice and cats.…

Hardware configuration also important to get query times down, says global research publisher Developers and architects considering deploying graph databases should spend more time on defining schema than they initially think, according to one multi-national user of the system.…

Moving premises can have all manner of hidden traps. Here's one to watch for Who Me? Welcome once again, gentle reader folk, to that buffer between the weekend and the workaday we call Who, Me? in which Register readers turn raconteur and recount tales of tech gone wrong.…

Nature probes published research as it emerges journal paper allegedly used to entice $120m cloud deal Special report A Google-led research paper published in Nature, claiming machine-learning software can design better chips faster than humans, has been called into question after a new study disputed its results.…

First big government expo since COVID sees CEOs galore jet in Some of Big Tech's top execs have sung China's praises at the 2023 China Development Forum – an annual government-organized event that returned from its COVID hiatus over the weekend.…

Meanwhile the US contemplates drastic action The government of France has banned TikTok – and all other recreational apps – from phones issued to its employees.…