Feed the-register The Register

The Register

Link https://www.theregister.com/
Feed http://www.theregister.co.uk/headlines.atom
Copyright Copyright © 2025, Situation Publishing
Updated 2025-10-20 14:01
Windows 11 update knocks out USB mice, keyboards in recovery mode
October security patch leaves users unable to fix their PCs Microsoft has confirmed a bug that disables USB mice and keyboards in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) after installing security update KB5066835, released October 14....
Like Apollo before them, ESA astronauts hone lunar landing skills in helicopters
Now try a jet engine in a bedstead before strapping into a Starship European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts have completed a helicopter training course to prepare them for upcoming lunar landings....
Benioff backs off: Salesforce chief says sorry for Trump troop talk
Tech billionaire apologizes after endorsing plan to deploy National Guard in San Francisco Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff has apologized for backing President Donald Trump's proposals to send the National Guard to San Francisco, where the company is based and holds its annual conference....
Lloyds Banking Group claims Microsoft Copilot saves staff 46 minutes a day
That's 46 minutes in which more work can be done, not an extended lunch Lloyds Banking Group claims employees save 46 minutes daily using Microsoft 365 Copilot, based on a survey of 1,000 users among nearly 30,000 deployed licenses....
The real insight behind measuring Copilot usage is Microsoft's desperation
Citizen! You are falling short in your AI usage targets! Strive harder for the revolution! Opinion The quantum theory of management includes an analogy for the physical law of the observer effect, where observing a system changes its state. When you make a metric a target, it is not useful as a metric. Instead of reflecting whatever underlying behavior it was intended to measure, the metric becomes a measure of how well the benchmark is being gamed....
Major AWS outage across US-East region breaks half the internet
Amazon reports DNS issues hitting DynamoDB, leaving services from Roblox to McDonald's struggling A major outage is affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS), with even Amazon's own web page reported to be offline and dozens of other online services and websites affected, including disruption in the UK....
A simple AI prompt saved a developer from this job interview scam
Plus: Ransomware posing as Teams installer, Cisco 0-day exploit to drop rootkit, and European cops bust SIM-box service INFOSEC IN BRIEF Engineer David Dodda says he was just "30 seconds away" from running malware on his own computer after nearly falling victim to a North Korea-type job interview scam with a "legitimate" blockchain company....
Tribunal wonders if Microsoft has found a legal hero after pivot to copyright gambit
ValueLicensing dispute probes whether Office counts as a creative work The long-running legal battle between ValueLicensing and Microsoft over the resale of software licenses has taken another turn following Microsoft's attempt to make the case about copyright....
UK calls up Armed Forces veterans for digital ID soft launch
Once more into the, er, breach? The UK's Armed Forces veterans are being tasked with one last mission - proving the government can successfully roll out a digital ID card scheme....
Company that made power systems for servers didn’t know why its own machines ran out of juice
Oh ... you mean we shouldn't press that button? Who, Me? Each new Monday ushers in a week during which you might shine or flatline. The Register celebrates the times you end up doing the latter with a new instalment of Who, Me? It's the column in which you admit to making mistakes and execute cunning escapes....
Ruby Central tries to make peace after 'hostile takeover'
Taps Ruby core to oversee RubyGems, Bundler Ruby Central, the non-profit that recently seized some Ruby open source tools from maintainers, is transferring the repository ownership of RubyGems and Bundler to the Ruby core team. The move appears to be an attempt to mollify the Ruby community following a divisive power grab, but it does not restore the control of those tools to the maintainers who previously oversaw them....
Meta convinces Blue Owl to cut $30B check for its Hyperion AI super cluster
Cleverly concocked deal keeps debt off Social Media empire's books Facebook parent Meta has managed to convince private equity firm Blue Owl Capital to finance its 2.2 gigawatt Hyperion datacenter project in Richland Parish, Louisiana....
Amazon spills plan to nuke Washington...with X-Energy mini-reactors
Now they just need to get regulatory approval Despite technological and regulatory hurdles, Amazon remains convinced that small modular reactors (SMRs) are the answer to the cloud titan's power woes....
American Airlines subsidiary Envoy caught in Clop's Oracle EBS raid
Not a good week for Big Red Envoy Air, an American Airlines subsidiary, has confirmed that it was among the dozens of organizations compromised via Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) security flaws, following claims by Clop extortionists that its parent company was one of its victims....
Thou shalt not let AI run amok: Vatican wants global rules
'AI is a tool', Pope tells attendees Recently, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff warned investors to avoid the "false prophets" of AI. Now, the Pope has brought real theological weight to the bot debate, hosting a Vatican seminar that called for global AI regulation and fair distribution of the technology's benefits....
Hyperscalers try to beat the heat with larger racks, more air flow
Most datacenters to ditch 19-inch standard for 21-inch OCP kit by 2030 Datacenters are set to standardize on the larger, 21-inch rack format by 2030, according to Omdia, as hyperscalers and server makers fully embrace it, leaving enterprises to the existing 19-inch standard....
Chamber of Commerce sues over Trump's $100K H-1B paywall
US biz lobby claims president overstepped his authority with proclamation demanding hefty visa fee The US Chamber of Commerce (CoC) has filed a suit accusing President Trump of exceeding his authority by seeking to slap a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications....
Have I Been Pwned logs 17.6M victims in Prosper breach
P2P lending platform says it could not verify the claims at present Data breach tracker HaveIBeenPwned claims the victim count of peer-to-peer lender Prosper's September cyberattack stands at 17.6 million....
Turns out the end of Windows 10 is good for something: The PC refresh cycle
Operating system's D-day resucitates flatlining computer sector It transpires that Windows 11 is indeed good for at least one thing - driving PC upgrades, according to the latest figures from Gartner....
Labor unions sue Trump administration over social media surveillance
Sharing views POTUS doesn't like? Say goodbye to that visa, First Amendment be damned Updated Lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are helping three US labor unions sue the Trump administration over a social media surveillance program that threatens to punish those who publicly express views that are not harmonious with the government's position....
Carmakers fear chip crunch as Dutch sanctions hit Nexperia
Beijing blocks exports after Netherlands imposes special measures on Chinese-owned chipmaker Major car, van, truck and bus manufacturers are warning that the Dutch government placing semiconductor biz Nexperia under special administrative measures could result in a shortage of automotive chips....
Microsoft parks Landsat and Sentinel satellite data in Azure's orbit
NASA's Earth-watching archives find new home in Redmond's cloud, complete with Copilot hype Microsoft has made NASA's Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) dataset available on Azure via the Windows giant's Planetary Computer platform....
SAP users still wrestling with business case for S/4HANA
A decade later, ERP giant struggles to convince legacy customers to upgrade More than a decade after SAP's S/4HANA in-memory ERP system debuted, 95 percent of legacy users say building a positive case to migrate requires a big effort or is genuinely challenging....
Boris Johnson confesses: He's fallen for ChatGPT
As OpenAI allows chatbot to spout erotic content, former British prime minister makes true feelings known After a string of marriages and innumerable affairs, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has come clean about his new squeeze....
Literal crossed wires sent cops after innocent neighbors in child abuse case
Eight-year telco blunder had a profound impact on three wrongly accused in Wales Details have emerged of a troubling case in which a basic engineering mistake wrecked a digital evidence investigation and led to wrongful accusations....
MIT boffins double precision of atomic clocks by taming quantum noise
'Global phase spectroscopy' makes ultraprecise optical timekeepers even more precise Researchers at MIT say they have discovered a way to double the precision of optical atomic clocks by quieting the quantum noise that clouds their ticking....
Britain's AI gold rush hits a wall – not enough electricity
Energy secretary Miliband promises renewable utopia for green and pleasant land... filled with datacenters Energy is essential for delivering the UK governments' AI ambitions, but Britain faces a critical question: how can it supply enough power for rapidly expanding datacenters without causing blackouts or inflating consumer bills?...
AI boffins teach office supplies to predict your next move
What the world's been waiting for: a stapler with wheels to help humans afflicted by RSI It was only a matter of time. Having invaded the software world, AI has now fixed its sights on once-benign household objects and desk fodder....
'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident
The 1990s called with a reminder that in the time before ransomware, infosec panics could be quite quaint On Call By Friday it's only natural to look back upon the working week with a certain nostalgia, an emotion The Register celebrates each week in On Call - the reader-contributed column that shares your tales of tech support trauma....
Anthropic brings mad Skills to Claude
Teaching an old bot new tricks Paying Anthropic customers can now teach their Claude new tricks, which the company calls Skills....
TSMC hurrying to bring advanced chip tech to Arizona fab
CEO C.C. Wei cites strong demand for AI products. Intel may also be a factor TSMC is accelerating the rollout of advanced process nodes at its Arizona fabs to meet growing demand for American-made AI products....
AI makes phishing 4.5x more effective, Microsoft says
And potentially 50 times more profitable People receiving an AI phishing email are 4.5 times more likely to click on the malicious link or file, according to Microsoft....
Decomposed dinosaurs make Texas a top destination for AI bit barns
Datacenter hopefuls looking to cash in on AI craze are setting up shop in Lone Star State in search of cheap power Everything is bigger in Texas and that includes the GPU bit barns at the heart of the AI boom....
Vulnerability scores, huh, what are they good for? Almost nothing
CVE and CVSS systems suffer from misaligned incentives and inconsistency Aram Hovespyan, co-founder and CEO of security biz Codific, says that the rating systems for identifying security vulnerabilities and assessing threat risk need to be overhauled....
Nork scammers work the blockchain to steal crypto from job hunters
If someone sends you a coding test, be wary of downloading it If you're a software developer looking for a job, North Korean scammers have an offer for you that's off the chain, the blockchain that is. These gangs have recently adopted a technique called EtherHiding, hiding malware inside blockchain smart contracts to sneak past detection and ultimately swipe victims' crypto and credentials, according to Google's Threat Intelligence team....
Feeling lonely? Microsoft Copilot can now listen to your every word, watch your screen
We've seen this before and it was called Cortana or Clippy As if pulling support for Windows 10 was not punishment enough for long-suffering customers, Microsoft has decided to shove Copilot down everyone's throats with a new voice activation feature and even more control over your PC. Soon, a Copilot box may even replace the search box on your taskbar....
Salesforce's Benioff warns of AI 'false prophets' while promising true profits by 2030
CRM messiah preaches data discipline while rivals chase LLM miracles Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has warned investors to beware "false prophets" peddling AI salvation, as the CRM giant bets on its "agentic enterprise" vision to drive annual revenue past $60 billion by 2030....
Chinese cyberspies snoop on Russian IT biz in rare east-on-east attack
Who needs enemies when you have friends like Xi? China's cyberspies quietly broke into a Russian IT service provider in what researchers say is a rare example of Beijing turning its digital gaze on Moscow....
Oracle goes all-in on AI, customers still figuring out how they'll use it
It's all agents and LLMs in Vegas, and even legacy users can partake As Oracle pounds the market with AI announcements across cloud infrastructure, applications, and data analytics, experts have warned that users' path to adoption remains uncertain....
NordVPN open sources its Linux GUI client under GPLv3
Joins its command-line client from a couple of years ago NordVPN has open sourced another of its Linux VPN client apps under the GPLv3. This time, it's the graphical user interface (GUI) version....
Locked out of your Gmail account? Google says phone a friend
Recovery feature lets trusted contacts help you get back in when other methods fail The latest security feature for Gmail enables users to recover their accounts with a little help from their friends....
US hyperscalers to guzzle 22% more grid juice by end of 2025
AI hype fuels bit barn boom - and utilities are sweating the surge Hyperscale datacenters stateside will consume 22 percent more grid power by the end of 2025 than a year ago, and are forecast to need nearly three times as much electricity by the end of the decade....
Microsoft kills 9.9-rated ASP.NET Core bug – 'our highest ever' score
Flaw in Kestrel web server allowed request smuggling, impact depends on hosting setup and application code Microsoft has patched an ASP.NET Core vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.9, which security program manager Barry Dorrans said was "our highest ever." The flaw is in the Kestrel web server component and enables security bypass....
Windows 11 update breaks localhost, prompting mass uninstall workaround
Microsoft's quality control department caught napping again Microsoft's October Windows 11 update has managed the impressive feat of breaking localhost, leaving developers unable to access web applications running on their own machines....
Senator presses Cisco over firewall flaws that burned US agency
Bill Cassidy letter asks if Switchzilla sat on critical flaws before feds were forced into emergency patching US Senator Bill Cassidy has fired off a pointed letter to Cisco over the firewall flaws that allegedly let hackers breach "at least one federal agency."...
Axiom Space ejects CEO after six months, installs NASA veteran as replacement
Jonathan Cirtain at the helm as revolving door swings for private corp Updated Axiom Space has ousted its CEO after just six months, hiring Jonathan Cirtain to replace Tejpaul Bhatia....
Auction house Sotheby's finds its data on the block after cyberattack
Alert says financial account information lifted from systems Auction house Sotheby's says it was breached on July 24, and those behind the intrusion stole an unspecified amount of data, including Social Security numbers and financial account information....
Tech industry grad hiring crashes 46% as bots do junior work
GenAI meets Gen Z - only one gets the job ai-pocalypse The UK tech sector is cutting graduate jobs dramatically - down 46 percent in the past year, with another 53 percent drop projected, according to figures from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE)....
Firefox 144 brings fixes, features, and farewells for 32-bit Linux die-hards
Mozilla hardens its browser and toys with AI search while closing the door on legacy systems New versions of both Mozilla's browser and its subsidiary MZLA's messaging client are here - with some bad news for users of older kit....
The $100B memory war: Inside the battle for AI's future
The AI gold rush is so large that even third place is lucrative Feature The generative AI revolution has exposed a brutal truth: raw computing power means nothing if you can't feed the beast. In sprawling AI datacenters housing thousands of GPUs, the real chokepoint isn't processing speed - it's memory bandwidth....
12345678910...