The Register

Brit solicitor fined after admitting it took 5 months to install critical update Criminal defense law firm Tuckers Solicitors is facing a fine from the UK's data watchdog for failing to properly secure data that included information on case proceedings which was scooped up in a ransomware attack in 2020.…

Not every hole is x86, CUDA, or Arm shaped Venture capitalists funneled billions into semiconductor startups in 2021, we're told, targeting designers of machine-learning technologies that fulfill specific or niche needs.…

Does not wish to 'profit' from 'commercial arrangements' in Russia Nominet, the dot-UK domain registrar, has announced that it will suspend services for Russian web domain registrars – and the British government says it "welcomes" the action.…

Apache project mulls options for next big upgrade as Big Blue focuses on 3.x iterations The IBM Cloudant software team has decided to pull the plug on its push to create a new database engine underlying Apache CouchDB, the NoSQL document store used by the BBC, Apple and atomic research facility CERN.…

DIY distro might not be the best place to start, but you'll learn buckets using it Arch Linux, arguably the most widely known rolling-release distribution, just celebrated its 20th anniversary. The project has commemorated its first public release, 0.1, with a snapshot of its original homepage.…

We sent it off 'to tweak a dragon's tail, and it did that and more' Feature We might be nearing the 50th anniversary of the last Apollo Moon landing, but spare a thought for NASA's Pioneer missions. Pioneer 10, the first mission to the outer planets, was launched 50 years ago this month.…

Your processor design fell off the vulnerability tree and hit every branch on the way down Analysis Intel this month published an advisory to address a novel Spectre v2 vulnerability in its processors that can be exploited by malware to steal data from memory that should otherwise be off limits.…

Engineers at TSMC and Samsung look pretty good, so make sure they can get visas The United States should hire more foreign talent and remove some visa barriers as part of a multi-pronged approach to secure its chip industry and supply chain, said a research analyst from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) – an American security and emerging technology policy think tank.…

Competitors and web developers would prefer to see mobile market rules rewritten Apple and Google have defended their business practices in letters to the UK Competition & Markets Authority, while rival companies and third-party developers continue to push for mobile market reforms.…

Auditor finds space agency defends Classified info well, isn't paying attention to valuable Unclassified data An audit of NASA's infosec preparedness against insider threats has warned it faces "serious jeopardy to operations" due to lack of protection for Unclassified information.…

Move along, nothing to see here, totally not slimming down ahead of IPO – or a second IPO in China Chip designer and licensor to the stars, Arm, has reportedly dropped around 1,000 workers onto unemployment queues.…

No service for NoSQL users contrasts with continuous clouds from other players NoSQL database challenger MongoDB has decided it won't sell its wares in Russia – not even its software-as-a-service offering.…

How your computer-vision model learned to stop worrying and love the Python Developers can create large datasets of synthetic videos to train computer-vision models using software written by a team of researchers led by Google.…

Is the West OK when the gun points the other way? Cybercriminals are taking sides over Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine, putting either the West or Moscow in their sights, according to Accenture.…

CEO tells El Reg why biomedical firms dig big dies AI chip startup Cerebras Systems has deployed one of its CS-2 systems at a well-funded startup that uses natural language processing to analyze massive amounts of biomedical data.…

We want to concentrate on legging it after Arm, says biz Up-and-coming SiFive is selling its OpenFive business, including its portfolio of blueprints for chip connectivity, to fellow silicon designer Alphawave.…

Go away, CPU, you're not needed here ... mostly Nvidia, IBM, and university collaborators have a developed an architecture they say will provide fast fine-grain access to large amounts of data storage for GPU-accelerated applications, such as analytics and machine-learning training.…

Not now with your mischief, Beijing China claims it has obtained malware used by the NSA to steal files, monitor and redirect network traffic, and remotely control computers to spy on foreign targets.…

Why pay more when you can get less? Good news for those kept out of the seat of a new Ford Explorer by the chip shortage: you can get one now, with a slight catch. …

If true, Redmond is capable sustaining a stable working environment somewhere after all Microsoft has claimed an important breakthrough in its journey to build and operate a viable quantum computer.…

One shows signs of a state-sponsored intrusion, the other potentially not Signs of Russian cyberattacks on Western-owned digital systems have begun to emerge – even as the German arm of Russian oil company Rosneft said it was breached over the weekend.…

Huge step towards the project's goal of being a drop-in replacement for older Microsoft operating systems ReactOS, the open-source project for creating a binary-compatible drop-in replacement for Windows, has crossed a crucial milestone with a first look at symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support.…

Controversial search engine being used to identify dead and Russian operatives The Ukrainian government is using facial recognition technology from startup Clearview AI to help them identify the dead, reveal Russian assailants, and combat misinformation from the Russian government and its allies.…

New, in this case, meaning generally more expensive Pricing changes coming to Google Cloud are likely to catch IT leaders, especially those on the budget side, by surprise. …

Long overdue innovation or an affront to all that developers hold dear? Type-fans rejoice! Plans (or a proposal, at least) are afoot to pop some type-checking into the infamously dynamically typed JavaScript.…

When it comes to smashing atoms, things are really starting to heat up A new funding bill in the US Congress has put aside millions of dollars for fusion energy research, despite the fusion-powered future being some years away. …

Wi-Fi 7 further away than some have estimated, so reap the benefits now Businesses shouldn't wait for Wi-Fi 7 networking kit when Wi-Fi 6E can give them significant advantages today.…

Oracle states it is agreeing to request while SAP and Microsoft decline to comment Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the world's largest software vendors to end support for Russian customers, companies and government organisations.…

Plus: Clearview slapped with €20m from Italy's data regulator for scraping selfies, and more In brief The name Rafaela Vasquez may not immediately be recogniseable, but the accident that ties her to the first-ever fatal self-driving car crash accident will be.…

Plus: Criminals use contact forms to spread BazarBackdoor, ServiceNow leaks, and more In brief A US bill that would require critical infrastructure operators to report cyberattacks within 72 hours is headed to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law.…

Fine-tuning cost using μTransfer was 7% of what it would be to pre-train GPT-3 Companies scaling up their neural network models could cut expensive training costs by employing a new technique developed by researchers at Microsoft and OpenAI.…

Martial law, no booze sales, big queues for trains westwards Pics British infosec pro Vic Harkness traveled to Ukraine to offer humanitarian help – and while taking a break in the western city of Lviv she described to The Register what it's like in the war-torn country.…

It might not be trendy anymore, but apparently it keeps on selling In a slightly curious blog post, Ubuntu recently dismissed the idea that OpenStack was no longer relevant and had been "abandoned" – making it the second outfit in the past six months to state how confident it remains in the IaaS platform.…

What if we've built the future, but nobody wants to come? Opinion On March 9th, Apple had its spring reveal. The stars of the show were a nice monitor, a new budget iPhone, and the Mac Studio, a Mac Mini stretched in Photoshop. Reaction was muted. There'd been some very accurate pre-launch leaks, sure, but nobody had cared about those either.…

Behind every successful company there is that one weird Visual Basic 3 app still running the show Who, Me? We all want the users of our software to be happy, but how far would you go to fulfill that requirement? For one Register reader, perhaps a bit too far. Welcome to Who, Me?…

Any port in a storm Analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has found that the global market for switches surged during 2021, despite shortages that have seen delivery of some products delayed for many months.…

Offers list of IP addresses that look like they're hosted at carriers and colos – hardly the stuff of super-spies China's Cyberspace Administration has claimed that "since late February" it has observed continuous attacks on the Chinese internet and local computers by actors who used the resources they co-opted to target Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.…

As Ukraine calls for big tech to end support for its products in Russia Russia's Investigative Committee, the nation's peak criminal and anti-corruption investigation body, has opened a probe into whether Meta is an extremist organization.…

The fight against economic espionage and skullduggery continues Taiwan's Ministry of Justice has tasked its Investigation Bureau to conduct a series of raids around the island and hauled in 60 Chinese nationals suspected of lifting trade secrets or poaching talent from China-owned firms.…

Spectre-like flaw has made an eighth release candidate necessary Linux kernel development boss Linus Torvalds's prediction that Linux 5.17 would be released this week "unless something surprising comes up" has come to pass. Not in the good way.…

iPhone plants closed and so have plenty more - brace for tech supply chain trouble The Chinese city of Shenzhen – the nation's tech hub – has gone into a week-long lockdown intended to slow an outbreak of COVID-19, and sent the world's tech-dependent industries into a whirlwind of worry about the impact on supply chains.…

Pay for pro, get a warm fuzzy feeling Zorin 16.1 has arrived, marking the first major update of the Linux distribution since August's release.…

Astrolab up against competition but has secret weapon: Cosmic crooner Chris Hadfield Space startup Astrolab, led by ex-SpaceX manager and NASA engineer Jaret Matthews, has successfully tested a lunar rover prototype that can operate telerobotically or ferry around a crew of two astronauts.…

Financial watchdog warns operators to shut down or else All cryptocurrency ATMs are operating illegally in the UK and must be shut down now, the nation's Financial Conduct Authority said in an alert on Friday.…

Back when debugging the Lyons Electronic Office led to interference from the building's elevator Obituary British programmer Mary Coombs, the first woman to program a computer designed for commercial applications, passed away on February 28 at the age of 93.…

It's not just a filesystem, it's an 'open-source storage platform' The OpenZFS Project has released version 2.1.3 of what the project calls its "open-source storage platform" for Linux and FreeBSD.…

Will someone give the buzzwords a buzz cut? The Cloud Security Alliance is trying to cut through the myriad zero-trust approaches and solutions out there and attempt to offer some practical info for corporate network admins.…

Details emerge of the now-patched flaws Singapore's Cyber Security Group, an agency charged with securing the nation's cyberspace, has uncovered four critical flaws in code from network software company Riverbed.…

Neon Genesis: Even Cryoin gone Analysts warned Russia's invasion of Ukraine could derail the supply chains of semiconductor fabs. Now those concerns are playing out with the apparent shuttering of two major neon gas suppliers in Ukraine.…

SaaS-y x86 goliath dreams of recurring revenue Analysis Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger lately said he wants to grow his company's software business "rapidly" with new software-as-a-service products and software platforms that will help the chipmaker better compete against rivals.…