The Register

Hint: Hundreds of malicious npm and PyPI packages spotted Exclusive Machine learning models are unreliable but that doesn't prevent them from also being useful at times.…

Hey Bing, help me find a new browser, er, AI chatbot So much for a good thing: Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi said Redmond is considering selling ad space in answers provided by the new Bing chatbot.…

Plus: Complains criteria for foreign companies to access US funding too strict. It's not a great sign, is it? South Korea has passed legislation giving tax breaks to its semiconductor companies in a bill being labelled as the "Korean Chips Act." At the same time, the nation's trade minister repeated its complaints that the criteria for Korean companies to access US funding are unpalatable in a possible sign of growing protectionism in the worldwide chip market.…

Yeast-based study illuminates understanding of how 'nauts physiology may change in space Cellular repair systems seem to respond to microgravity, scientists have found, leading to the hope they can better understand the effects of space flight on the human body.…

Miscreants hit downstream customers with infostealers Two security firms have found what they believe to be a supply chain attack on communications software maker 3CX – and the vendor's boss is advising users to switch to the progressive web app until the 3CX desktop client is updated.…

What's coming up in 2023 and beyond Intel delivered an update to its datacenter and AI roadmap Wednesday in which executives promised the delays that have plagued its Sapphire Rapids CPU launch were behind them.…

If you need extra time to dump RPS, OK, but email from unsupported Exchange servers is blocked till they’re up to date Some Exchange Online users who have the RPS feature turned off by Microsoft can now have it re-enabled – at least until September when the tool is retired.…

Still hundreds of components, verification checks to complete before test flight Boeing's debut Starliner spacecraft launch carrying its first-ever crew of astronauts to the International Space Station is being postponed again, and is not expected to fly until 21 July at the earliest.…

Here's how not to end up in their next report as a cautionary tale Interview Securing cloud databases boils down to three things, according to John Yeoh, global VP for research at Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).…

Transparency? Redmond's heard of it Microsoft is close to resolving antitrust complaints lodged against it with the European Commission by local suppliers OVHcloud, Aruba S.p.A and Danish Cloud Community (DCC) over alleged commercial abuses.…

And it looks like educational flavor Edubuntu is returning, too Ubuntu's Technical Board has voted and passed the motion: as of Ubuntu 23.04, Ubuntu Cinnamon will become the ninth official flavor.…

Our vultures who cover the news weigh in Register Kettle TikTok, the made-in-China video-sharing upstart that's outshone rivals, has copped a lot of criticism of late.…

Under pressure from activist investor, top brass agree to plot new course Airbus has pulled out of negotiations to buy almost a third of Evidian following intense public pressure from an activist investor who described the transaction as an apparent bail out of parent Atos.…

We've got your summarization, your Q&A, your chatbots, your classification tasks ready to go Google opened its Cloud Data & AI Summit on Wednesday with a reminder that it was there at the start of the burst of enthusiasm for machine learning models – something it maybe feels has been lost now that so much attention is being paid to OpenAI's GPT models and related Microsoft spinoffs.…

How someone can nab buffered info, by hook or by kr00k Ambiguity in the Wi-Fi specification has left the wireless networking stacks in various operating systems vulnerable to several attacks that have the potential to expose network traffic.…

$161 million slap-on-the-wrist fine stands, but major restrictions are eased Updated Google's appeal to an Indian tribunal regarding alleged abuse of the Chocolate Factory's dominant position in the Android market resulted in the removal of some antitrust directives, but brought no relief from a $161 million fine.…

Mandiant identifies 'moderately sophisticated' but 'prolific' APT43 as global menace Google Cloud's recently acquired security outfit Mandiant has named a new nasty from North Korea: a cyber crime gang it calls APT43 and accuses of a five-year rampage.…

'Intel inside' a suspiciously baggy t-shirt gave the game away – as did a truckload of parts International Talk Like a Pirate Day is still months away – circle September 19 on your calendar, me hearties! – but The Register has found news of technology smuggling in China that suggests a buccaneering approach to imports.…

Korean chipmaker has created an org to keep it ahead of geopolitical messes The co-CEO of South Korean chipmaker SK hynix has taken a swipe at the US CHIPS Act subsidy program, labelling the process to apply for funding overly onerous.…

Beware of third party downloads Clipboard-injector malware disguised as Tor browser installers has been used to steal about $400,000 in cryptocurrency from nearly 16,000 users worldwide so far in 2023, according to Kaspersky researchers.…

All it needs to do is detect ■■■■■■■■■■ in the ■■■■■ at ■■■■■■ when the ■■■■■■■■ Researchers at America's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are developing machine learning techniques to help the Feds crack down on potentially rogue nuclear weapons.…

Analysts just don't see digi-brains making a difference to dismal demand that's caused deep discounting If you're in the market for a memory-optimized server or top-of-the-range workstation, the industry watchers at TrendForce have some good news.…

Crescent Space will be 'well positioned' to get a piece of NASA's cash pie, no contract yet Aerospace firm Lockheed Martin has announced the launch of a subsidiary to build a satellite communications network to connect future Moon missions with those of us stuck on Earth. …

Unmasking also in store for anyone who's 'posted, uploaded, downloaded or modified' tweet biz code A California court has granted Twitter's request to unmask the GitHub user who uploaded its source code – along with anyone who "posted, uploaded, downloaded or modified" said code.…

German startup reconned on hardware economics favouring a specialist database Interview Exasol has beaten a separate path from rivals in the market, and while open-source systems have climbed in popularity, the German database biz has remained proprietary. And although other vendors have tried to bring together analytics and transaction in one database, Exasol remains, steadfastly, an analytical system.…

First version built on 20.04 hits smartphones and tablets of UBPorts fans The UBPorts project has just released the fruit of a lot of labor, especially for a volunteer group, emitting a fresh version of its smartphone OS – which includes the Lomiri UI, formerly known as Unity 8.…

Those hoping to use nefarious websites like, er, Zoom are overrun by alerts. Redmond 'investigating' Updated Microsoft's at-times-glitchy Defender service is again causing headaches for IT admins by flagging legitimate URLs as malicious.…

Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk find something to agree on The UK has proposed a light touch approach to regulating AI, coinciding with the first reports of a suicide that is alleged to have followed a week's intensive conversation with a chatbot.…

Competition regulators in Britain opt for Phase II discovery over worries about prices and rival tech access UK government will proceed with an in-depth investigation into the proposed buyout of VMware by Broadcom, dashing the companies' hopes the merger might be waved through quickly by regulatory bodies.…

Beijing investing locally in advanced nodes will mean it buys locally, says MediaTek chairman The chairman of Taiwan’s biggest chip designer, Mediatek’s Tsai Ming-kai, expressed distress over US semiconductor sanctions yesterday, saying they may hurt Taiwan's chip houses.…

Digital Market Act interoperability requirement a social challenge as well as a technical one By March 2024, instant messaging and real-time media apps operated by large tech platforms in Europe will be required to communicate with other services, per the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).…

Quirky Brit idiom, or confusing and gendered term that could deter people from studying the field? The UK’s Institute of Physics (IOP) is calling on the popular press to ditch the term “boffin” when referring to scientists.…

AIs are going to need memory and storage silicon, you know Micron has had another bad quarter – one of its largest quarterly losses ever – with revenues plunging and predictions of further workforce reductions, but claims its performance was in line with expectations, saying it expects to see a return to growth in the near future.…

Welcome to the club, says Google, Meta, and Amazon Microsoft is the latest US tech giant under investigation by Germany's competition watchdog.…

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. …