The Register

If you're wondering why some websites disappeared today Updated Akamai's Edge DNS service went down on Thursday morning, US West Coast time, knocking over its customers' websites as it fell.…

At least Redmond is taking some security seriously Microsoft has snapped up cloud security outfit CloudKnox while researchers continue to poke holes in its down-to-earth Windows operating system.…

Nauka? More like 'Borka!' Geddit? Russia's latest contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), successfully launched yesterday, but appears to have run into problems on orbit.…

Some of the stuff going on in the industry is completely out of order A new initiative aims to make it easier to report personal abuse and harassment within the information security industry – without the involvement of social media mobs.…

Learn how to thrive with modern file storage – check out Nasuni CloudBound21 Promo 2020 was an impactful year for file storage. Almost overnight, companies were forced to rethink how they manage, access, and derive value from data, casting a bright light on the advantages of cloud-based technologies. After navigating unforeseen business challenges, including ransomware attacks, remote work environments, and more, it is time to discover how to apply those lessons learned.…

UK Home Sec must now sign it off and then it's a High Court matter Mike Lynch, former chief exec of Autonomy, has reportedly lost his US extradition fight at its earliest stage in London's Westminster Magistrates' Court.…

Head start from pre-pandemic guesswork running out, and mass production potentially years ago Texas Instruments is flexing its chip-making muscles, boasting of impressive foresight in avoiding the worst of the component shortages and its progress in bringing two new fabs online – but admits it could be years before either begin producing in volume.…

Not just the legacy HR and finance systems being booted The UK’s consumer guardian for the financial services sector looks set to chop 38 jobs from its IT department in favour of buying Workday cloud-based HR and hiring an external service provider to support its compute plans.…

Swings and roundabouts: They also drove a 58% boost to business revenue Netgear has blamed a noticeable slump in one market sector on a surprising cause: the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the UK and US.…

Cloud apps giant sets off to invent the future of work and beat Microsoft Teams Salesforce has completed its long-awaited mega-slurp of Slack Technologies, Inc for an eye-watering $27.7bn.…

'Well that went well' A post on why using Kubernetes to scale would mean "doing mostly the same things but in a more complicated way" was so popular that the site hosting the article went down due to the sheer volume of traffic.…

It's probably still true, though, says formal methods expert "Software research is a train wreck," says Hillel Wayne, a Chicago-based software consultant who specialises in formal methods, instancing the received wisdom that bugs are way more expensive to fix once software is deployed.…

We've come a long way from Terry Wogan's celeb interviews Feature Terry Wogan has a lot to answer for. From 1982 to 1992, he presented an eponymous chat show on BBC1 where he would often interview celebrities via satellite in front of an unconvincing backdrop of the Hollywood sign.…

Would you like to pay with a poke? Thales has announced what it claims is the "world's first" payment card to include an onboard fingerprint sensor, promising improved security and usability – and an end to contactless payment limits.…

Commercial exploitation of a person's inner thoughts 'particularly worrisome' Researchers at Imperial College London have sounded the alarm over a "bleak panorama" surrounding brain-computer interfaces (BCI), warning of a potential future in which BCI-equipped cyborgs divide the world – or have their inner thoughts harvested for commercial exploitation.…

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson says 53 per cent of cyber attacks on China come from the US China has very firmly pushed back against the accusation it paid contractors to attack Microsoft's Exchange Server.…

Won't someone please think of the ch, er, money laundering The European Commission has put forward legislation requiring cryptocurrency exchanges and other companies to ensure crypto-asset transfers include the personal details of the customers involved.…

Perseverance prepares to snaffle first sample for eventual retrieval NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has started the process of acquiring its first sample of Martian rock.…

Creator of QWK format suffered fatal heart attack as cops surrounded home A teenager in the US has been jailed for five years for his role in the harassment and swatting of the owner of a desirable Twitter handle – a swoop that led to the netizen's death.…

Denies everything, as governments open probes into the company and its wares The NSO Group, a purveyor of spyware it hopes governments and law enforcement bodies will use to fight terrorism, has announced it will not answer any further questions about allegations raised by Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories that its products have been widely misused.…

Meanwhile, Tokyo games ticket holder data leaks, and those affected can't even use their seats Three US senators have written to their nation's Olympic Committee with a request that it "forbid American athletes from receiving or using Digital Yuan during the Beijing Olympics" – a reference to the Winter Games scheduled to commence on February 4th, 2022.…

Password-stealing package outed by security firm evokes sense of déjà vu Another malicious library has been spotted in the JavaScript-oriented NPM registry, underscoring the continued fragility of today's software supply chain.…

Another year, and Chinese tech bogeyman is still on the blocklist Huawei says it is looking to facilitate a "deeper, mutual understanding" with the US government despite remaining on the security naughty step, and is continuing to spend millions lobbying American officials in areas such as broadband and mobile technology.…

SubT Challenge pits high-tech rescue drones against one another in upsettingly non-violent combat Legendarily loopy US military (and now also non-military) ideas factory DARPA has launched a $1m competition for underground robots.…

'PlugWalkJoe' also said to have meddled with TikTok, SnapChat The Spanish National Police have, at the request of America, arrested UK citizen Joseph O’Connor in Estepona, Spain, in connection with the July 2020 takeover of more than 130 Twitter accounts.…

'Maybe that's what you do, but that's not what everybody does' Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has addressed a question that has occurred to most Windows users one time or another: why does Windows have a "New" menu?…

Ransomware efforts will inevitably lead to threats to life as attacks on OT go OTT Rise of The Machines Rampaging cyber hoods will be using compromised machinery and systems to kill humans by 2025, according to cheerfully optimistic new predictions from research company Gartner.…

Want to dust off that flash luggage set? We Concur, says German giant Business travel is back – kinda – said SAP as it filed results showing total calendar Q2 revenue down 1 per cent year-on-year to €6.67bn.…

Fancy new system shown off at online summit Google has introduced a new Intrusion Detection Service together with "Adaptive Protection" for its cloud firewall, but such services make security a costly feature.…

Olly Joshi talks environmental issues, fundraising, and whether he'd hire '70s Jobs himself A former ad exec is trying to make some cash history by pitting two copies of a job application penned by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1973 against each other at auction – one the original physical copy, and the other a cryptocurrency-backed non-fungible token (NFT).…

Plastic-backed TFT part positioned as perfect for the Internet of Things Researchers at chip designer Arm have shown off a prototype microprocessor - dubbed PlasticARM - built on flexible plastic, letting it curve around surfaces and even flex backwards and forwards.…

Talks of increased interest in EUV, nations' desire to take tech production native Lithography specialist ASML, one of the companies that sells chipmakers the things they need to actually make chips, has announced a barnstorming Q2 with its highest order intake ever - as customers scramble to fill a depleted supply chain eager for parts.…

Ah shucks, industry and investors will have to wait a little bit longer The UK government looks set to delay the publication of its much-anticipated Hydrogen Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), told MPs this morning.…

There is no escaping Microsoft's messaging platform There are few constants in life, though death and taxes spring to mind, as does Microsoft forcing its Teams collab platform down the throat of any passing users.…

Remembering the second American in space Somewhat lost in the hubbub over Jeff Bezos' jaunt into space is the 60th anniversary of Virgil "Gus" Grissom's suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7.…

'Campaign of engagement and communication' might not include letter, but junior minister doesn't rule it out The UK government has refused to commit to sending a letter to 55 million patients in England informing them about its plans to extract their medical data from GP IT systems.…

Company can't seem to help running its mouth, despite ASA's ruling last year The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has warned mobile network Three not to repeat claims that it is "building the UK's fastest 5G network" and that its network represents "real 5G" – after pulling the company up on the same claims a year ago.…

Gather 'round, kids, and I'll tell you stories of rotary dial phones, modems, and FTP Mozilla has finally expunged File Transfer Protocol (FTP) from the Firefox browser – an action already taken by other major browsers like Chrome and Edge, making Firefox 89.0 the last bastion of the protocol.…

Yet they lose anonymity bid before High Court Hundreds of Westminster political staffers are suing the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) after it allegedly published their salaries, holiday entitlements, and number of hours worked.…

What really happens after you disappear into Bezos' talent hoover? Feature Do you ever get the feeling that there's a party going on and you're not invited? Is that how you feel when you fire up LinkedIn and see yet another long-standing connection has been rewired into Amazon or AWS?…

Academics, senior officers sat at uncomfortable table and asked 'what's going on 'ere, then?' Members of the House of Lords are looking at the role technologies such as AI and facial recognition have in modern policing methods and law enforcement.…

According to simulations, anyway The gravitational field of neutron stars is so strong that so-called mountains poking out from their surfaces only grow to a fraction of a millimetre in height in simulations.…

No rudeness. No cute kids spruiking tat. No violence. No fan frenzies. And no smutty emoticons The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) today announced a "Summer Youth Network Environment Improvement" – a massive cleanse of the Chinese internet to make it safe for kids aged 16 and under.…

How do you feel about your cloud now? Comment Amnesty International's allegations this week that NSO Group's spyware products have been widely abused have rightly sparked a debate about the ethics of digital surveillance.…

Previous bans were imposed for nasty content, then lifted after promises of proper moderation. And here we are again Pakistan has banned made-in-China social network TikTok for the fourth time, and there's no sign this one will prove any stickier than previous efforts.…

Short influencer-fronted infomercials may seep into YouTube YouTube announced yesterday it signed a definitive agreement to acquire India's two-year-old social e-commerce platform, Simsim. The transaction is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.…

Perhaps coincidentally, Google extended deadline of enforced Play-to-Pay on the very same day South Korea will attempt to pass a law that gives app developers the right to use in-app payment services other than those offered by app stores.…

Patches available for priv-esc bug in the open-source software, at least Move over, PrintNightmare. Microsoft has another privilege-escalation hole in Windows that can be potentially exploited by rogue users and malware to gain admin-level powers.…

Deletion of employer's YouTube account deemed violation of release Former journalist Matthew Keys, who served two years in prison for posting his Tribune Company content management system credentials online a decade ago in violation of America's Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, has been ordered back to prison for violating the terms of his supervised release.…

Twitter, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft have reopened, kind of Apple has pushed back the reopening of its offices to October, allowing staff to work from home for an extra month as coronavirus cases increase across the US.…