The Register

It's not a bug, it's a feature, explains the Chocolate Factory Google has implemented a browser capability in Chrome called ScrollToTextFragment that enables deep links to web documents, but it has done so despite unresolved privacy concerns and lack of support from other browser makers.…

That ain't the way life should be, Maine responds The US state of Maine is violating internet broadband providers' free speech by forcing them to ask for their customers’ permission to sell their browser history, according to a new lawsuit.…

Critical fix for static credential headlines latest patch rollout Cisco has released fixes to address 17 vulnerabilities across its networking and unified communications lines.…

IRS wants Zuckerberg's empire to cough up $9bn in back taxes Facebook has told a court the reason it valued itself at just $6.5bn back in 2010 is not because it was seeking to avoid paying billions in extra tax, but because people had started using their mobile phones more. At the time, the antisocial goliath was reliant on ads on its desktop site.…

America wanted a cover-up of Kremlin ties to DNC intrusion, court told Julian Assange was offered a pardon by the White House only if he publicly said Russia did not hack the Democratic National Committee, according to the WikiLeaks supremo's lawyer.…

Mystery facility hit by 'commodity' infection thought to be Ryuk America's Homeland Security this week disclosed it recently responded to a ransomware infection at an unnamed natural gas plant.…

Firm told: Contracting with Uncle Sam is a privilege, not a right An American court has rejected Huawei's constitutional challenge to a US law that bans federal agencies and contractors from buying and using the Chinese firm's telecoms equipment.…

But will you see your phone bills decreasing? Ofcom must repay £218m to the UK's four main mobile network operators (MNOs) after overcharging them for spectrum access, the Court of Appeal ruled today.…

Dot-com is all the rage, yo Updated British customers of High Street banking brand Natwest are being advised not to use the domain natwest.co.uk – by none other than Natwest itself.…

PARC, Apple and Amazon – computing pioneer dies at 74 Obit Larry Tesler – self-described "primary inventor of modeless editing and cut, copy, paste" – has died at the age of 74.…

We read through reams of releases to give you the skinny on plans for: AI, 100Mbps min. broadband, data-sharing ... and what's this about a Euro-cloud? The European Commission, under its newly elected president Ursula von der Leyen, this morning emitted a sweeping digital strategy for the member states over the next five years. There's a lot to get through, but it focuses on three pillars: digital enablement and protection for individuals (including AI regulation and broadband availability), fair competition, and sustainability.…

Yeah, don't break this one either iFixit has gone all Spanish inquisition on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, taking a sharp scalpel to the pricey foldable's innards and posting the pics online. What did it find? Not heresy, but somewhat of a mixed bag when it comes to repairability.…

World turns to Twitter for reasoned discussion and cat memes Pit of the internet Reddit is TITSUP* just in time to ruin the lunchtime surfing of Europeans and the morning smoothie-quaffing of Americans.…

Split me once, shame on you. Split me twice, shame on, er, you again? Screens on Microsoft's Surface Laptop 3 have appeared to develop a crack habit, with one of the latest complaints claiming this happened even after repair.…

What was it Burns said? Something about plans, mice and men Private equity biz Leonne International has snapped up 20 per cent of Shetland Space Centre for a hair over £2m, with the cash set to grow the company ahead of launches from the northernmost British isle.…

A comfortable, pleasant non-mechanical keyboard Review Keyboards are essential so it's no surprise people are particular about the ones they use. And though mechanical keyboards command the majority of the mouth-foaming geek lust, there's still a home for the humble scissor-switch, as demonstrated by the delightfully functional Bakker Elkhuizen UltraBoard 950 Wireless.…

To be fair, all UK cities could benefit from such a scheme... Sheffield authorities have enlisted four companies to help improve rubbish collection and road maintenance in the northern English city through a network of sensors.…

In some of UK's worst flood-hit areas IT failures in emergency fire control rooms are creating dangerous delays, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has warned.…

MyPr0nStash might not have been the wisest name for that file server after all Seeking to improve its pisspoor customer service rating, UK telecoms giant Vodafone has clarified just how much information it slurps from customer networks. You might want to rename those servers, m'kay?…

Are we doing panic about software updates again? Really? OK Some of the biggest names in the technology world still ship hardware that can be possibly hijacked by well-placed miscreants, thanks to poor or non-existent checks for firmware updates.…

Would-be buyer Ethos attempts closed-room meeting to push deal through The Internet Society's own members are now opposing its sale of the .org internet registry to an unknown private equity firm.…

Smart-home kit slinger does the right thing... under commercial duress Ring will make two-factor authentication mandatory for all its customers, forcing them to enter a six-digit code before they can access their accounts, the Amazon-owned outfit announced on Tuesday.…

There's always a tech angle The former CEO of education software business Symplicity was pardoned by President Donald Trump this week, almost six years after the suit admitted hacking into two rivals’ computer systems.…

President slams his own administration's 'ridiculous' China crackdown President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wants America's semiconductor industry to be able to do business around the globe, calling into question a reported trade rule change targeting Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei.…

Meanwhile: Chip fabs still running just fine in China, FYI, says analyst Google has added rentable virtual machines powered by AMD's second-generation Epyc Rome server processors to its cloud platform line-up – as a beta, we note.…

If you need to ask the price, you definitely can't afford it Updated SpaceX has pledged to carry up to four passengers into Earth orbit aboard its autonomous Crew Dragon capsule – its first crewed mission for private space tourism – as early as 2021.…

Japanese supplier's biz model, like its products, were straight as a spring Two former sales executives at NHK Spring Ltd, Hitoshi Hashimoto and Hiroyuki Tamura, were indicted in America last week for alleged participation in a worldwide conspiracy to fix the prices of hard disk components.…

Following this? An Instagram/YouTube ad horse has carried out a cunning meta-Marshall McLuhan-style spoof by faking an influencer holiday in Bali photographed entirely in her local Ikea.…

Look over here! Mmmmm, tax breaks In an effort to counter the influence and spread of Chinese-built kit, the Japanese government has approved a draft bill that will offer low-cost finance to firms looking to develop 5G and drone technologies.…

Texan tech giant hacks off part of security real estate, sells to consortium Dell Technologies is flogging its infosec business RSA for $2.075bn as it tries to reduce its longstanding debt.…

Not many stranger things happen at sea Penetration testers looking at commercial shipping and oil rigs discovered a litany of security blunders and vulnerabilities – including one set that would have let them take full control of a rig at sea.…

OPPOrtunity knocks etc You can count the number of phone manufacturers who design their own silicon on one hand – Huawei, Samsung and Apple. But soon you'll be able to add OPPO to that list.…

French telco pairs up with Telxius on backhaul links, co-lo services Orange and Telxius are hooking up to provide backhaul links and co-lo services for Google's fibre-optic transatlantic cable, due to go live later this year.…

Support ends May 26. Users fretting over Fedora CoreOS's limitations might want to jump into Flatcar Red Hat is set to fling a flaming arrow at Red Hat CoreOS Container Linux*, the software firm said as it laid out the details of the end of life timeline for the distro it acquired in January 2018.…

Then goes and opens rocket engine factory Very wealthy bloke Jeff Bezos announced he would be spending billions on fighting climate change the same day his space rocket venture, Blue Origin, opened its Huntsville production facility.…

Yet another financial institution only wants freelancers on its own terms Deutsche Bank is set to lose contractors from key UK teams as it tries to force freelancers to take pay cuts in line with looming IR35 tax reforms.…

Factories 'ramping more slowly than anticipated' Apple said the COVID-19 epidemic in China has disrupted iPhone production to the point that it will lead to global shortages of the handset – and likely miss already widened revenue forecasts it set in January.…

ElectionGuard guards real-life election Microsoft is in Fulton, Wisconsin, today to try its ElectionGuard electronic vote system in the primary election for the US state's Supreme Court candidates.…

Microsoft previews its efforts to bring complexity of on-prem IT to the cloud Microsoft has slung out a limited sneak peek at Azure Shared Disks, which enable on-premises applications that run on clustered storage to be migrated cloudwards.…

Just what is it you lot actually do anyway? Comment Headlining the recent Oracle OpenWorld Europe gabfest in London, Big Red's CEO Safra Catz says big chages are afoot at the company, though the shadow of its colourful chairman continues to loom large.…

Ah Larry, you're all heart. Virtually While the faithful were gathered for Oracle's OpenWorld Europe (OOW) knees-up at London's Excel centre, boffins using the company's cloud have been busy creating a virtual human.…

If only there was some way of organising the space Bork!Bork!Bork! Considering the origins of the word "bork!", we were delighted when news reached Vulture Central of IKEA getting in on the act.…

Move over, there's plenty of room on Putin's naughty step Fresh from last week's controversy with a US telco, German secure email biz Tutanota has declared today that the Russian authorities have pulled the plug on its services.…

As in, it's easy to damage despite spiel Early adopters of Samsung's foldable Galaxy Z Flip have shed doubt on the phone's hardiness despite claims from the tech giant about its flexible glass display.…

'Web apps should be able to do anything native apps can' Google's Chrome 81 is now in beta, bringing Web NFC support to the browser and extensions to the WebXR implementation to enable Augmented Reality (AR).…

Just edible gold rather than briefcases filled with the actual stuff A plate of oysters, followed by genuine Japanese Wagyu sirloin? Washed down with a bottle or two of Screaming Eagle Cabernet '92? These are just some of the levers Xerox may pull to convince HP Inc shareholders to cash out when it wines and dines them this week.…

Remote attackers were able create their own admin accounts A vulnerability in a popular WordPress user role plugin lets any random person create an admin-level account on targeted websites.…

Also: No HoloLens 2 at Barcelona Roundup While Windows wobbled under the weight of patches, the Microsoft gang updated development tools and buffed up a lure for startups among other shenanigans in this past week.…

Chaebol switching even more production out of Middle Kingdom The coronavirus epidemic continues to disrupt China's manufacturing and logistics sectors, forcing smartphone manufacturers to adapt. Among them this is South Korean tech giant Samsung, which has begun shipping smartphone components to Vietnam by air and sea, where two-thirds of its handsets are now being assembled.…

Spindly thing claimed to stay airborne for a year with 15kg payload A BAE Systems pseudo-satellite drone has made its maiden flight in Australia, just under two years after being announced as a marketing concept.…