Sci-Tech news

• Facebook videos could soon auto-play in your feed with the sound turned on

  24-08-2016 12:02
  
  By: Matt BurgessContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Scammers impersonate FBI on social media, prey on crime victims

  20-07-2026 22:10 via theregister.com
  
  Real FBI agents won't slide into your DMs and offer to help you recover stolen funds. The bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) updated an earlier warning on Monday about scammers impersonating the agency online, saying fraudsters continue to use the scheme "to deceive and revictimize individuals." According to IC3, there are two different schemes being used to target cybercrime victims, both directly and by soliciting them to report incidents. In the first scheme, IC3 said scammers cre
  
  Read more

• Time Traveler claiming to be from the year 2045 delivers alarming predictions for the next four years

  20-07-2026 21:53 via dailymail.com
  
  A self-proclaimed time traveler has revealed the true origins of UFO sightings and who will allegedly be the last president in US history.
  
  Read more

• AWS customer learns the hard way how even the smallest oversight can be mission-critical

  20-07-2026 21:37 via theregister.com
  
  Nothing can ruin the end of a week like finding out that all of the websites and hosted email you’re responsible for are offline, which is exactly what happened to Christopher Bradbury and his web design and development firm, Digital Takumi last week. AWS has since resolved the situation, but Bradbury's mistakes can serve as a useful lesson to others of what not to do. As Bradbury explained to The Register in an email, he noticed last Thursday, July 16, that all the websites and Google Wor
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Malicious cloud customers can bring down the power grid

  20-07-2026 21:15 via theregister.com
  
  AI datacenters wreak havoc on the power grid under normal circumstances, so what happens if a bad actor controls all the GPUs and wants to cause harm? Cybersecurity researchers in China have devised a way for malicious tenants to attack their infrastructure provider, potentially causing blackouts or damaging equipment. The attack, dubbed Bit2Watt, imagines an adversary masquerading as a legitimate cloud tenant to launch GPU workloads that have the potential to damage datacenters and supporting e
  
  Read more

• Frontier LLMs couldn't help Hugging Face fight off evil agents

  20-07-2026 20:46 via theregister.com
  
  Apparently, being a leading destination for AI development doesn't mean AI will bail you out. AI agents broke into Hugging Face's production infrastructure, but commercial LLM guardrails blocked the forensic investigation, forcing it to turn to a Chinese open-weight model instead. The intrusion, “driven, end to end, by an autonomous AI agent system,” compromised a “limited set” of Hugging Face’s internal datasets and “several” credentials used by its ser
  
  Read more

• Multiple East Coast cities told to prepare NOW as tornado threat looms TOMORROW

  20-07-2026 20:28 via dailymail.com
  
  Officials have issued a warning to millions of Americans facing the threat of tornadoes as a volatile storm system bears down on the eastern US.
  
  Read more

• The Document Foundation says Microsoft's file formats keep users on a short leash

  20-07-2026 18:01 via theregister.com
  
  The Document Foundation (TDF) has criticized proprietary file formats and the lock-in they create, with Microsoft's ubiquitous Office formats drawing particular scrutiny. TDF would doubtless welcome a world where everyone used LibreOffice or another open equivalent, yet the reality is that Microsoft's productivity tools still dominate the office software market. However that shouldn't be a problem. Files are interchangeable these days, right? Office uses the Office Open XML (OOXML) format, so sw
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Dark matter could resonate through a hidden FIFTH dimension, scientists claim

  20-07-2026 17:23 via dailymail.com
  
  Dark matter is already one of the strangest substances in the universe, but a new study suggests this elusive material could be even weirder than we thought.
  
  Read more

• Milk shortages loom across America after devastating cyberattack halts Fairlife production

  20-07-2026 17:19 via dailymail.com
  
  A billion-dollar milk company, serving millions of Americans each year, has been forced to halt production following a devastating cyberattack.
  
  Read more

• Microsoft 365 calendars become spy drop boxes in HOLLOWGRAPH campaign

  20-07-2026 16:59 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft 365 calendars have become the latest hiding place for espionage malware, with attackers stashing commands and stolen files inside appointments dated 24 years into the future. Researchers at Group-IB say they've uncovered a malware component they call HOLLOWGRAPH that swaps the usual command-and-control server for something rather less conspicuous – a compromised Microsoft 365 calendar. Instead of reaching out to attacker-controlled infrastructure for instructions, the implant rum
  
  Read more

• Moon landing conspiracies are reignited online on the 57th anniversary of Apollo 11 - as experts reveal three pieces of evidence that prove NASA's lunar missions were real

  20-07-2026 16:55 via dailymail.com
  
  Moon landing conspiracies have been reignited online once again, as NASA celebrates the 57th anniversary of Apollo 11.
  
  Read more

• America's favorite milk forced to halt production after cyberattack sparking fears of nationwide shortages

  20-07-2026 16:42 via dailymail.com
  
  A billion-dollar milk company, serving millions of Americans each year, has been forced to halt production following a devastating cyberattack.
  
  Read more

• Tropical Storm Bertha to form near US coast in just HOURS as millions brace for direct hit

  20-07-2026 16:21 via dailymail.com
  
  A tropical storm developing near multiple US states is expected to make landfall this week and bring life-threatening conditions to millions.
  
  Read more

• Windows Server Update Services buckle under Microsoft's metadata mountain

  20-07-2026 16:14 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft's aging Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) has hit "severe degradation," leaving some organizations facing painfully slow synchronizations or timeouts when fetching updates. According to Microsoft, "a buildup of publishing metadata" has meant that "organizations might experience increased synchronization times or sync operation timeouts on WSUS servers." We're told the problem isn't related to the recent Patch Tuesday update, but Microsoft noted "heightened impact observed starting
  
  Read more

• America's favorite milk forced to halt production after devastating cyberattack

  20-07-2026 16:13 via dailymail.com
  
  A billion-dollar milk company, serving millions of Americans each year, has been forced to halt production following a devastating cyberattack.
  
  Read more

• EU's AI labeling rules take effect next month

  20-07-2026 15:27 via theregister.com
  
  From August 2, providers of AI systems in the EU will have to tell people when they are interacting with a machine and add machine-readable marks to AI-generated or manipulated content under new transparency rules. Launching guidance ahead of the deadline, Henna Virkkunen, European Commission executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: "The Commission supports the smooth and effective application of the AI Act to make AI systems interacting with people such as ch
  
  Read more

• Watching the world burn as all the money flows into a multitrillion-dollar Magic 8 Ball

  20-07-2026 14:44 via theregister.com
  
  KETTLE Your host Brandon Vigliarolo has been breathing in wildfire smoke from Canada for the past few days, which really has him thinking about whether all those AI datacenters building gas turbines and contributing to climate change is really worth it. You can listen to the latest episode of The Kettle right here on this page, as well as on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube where you can subscribe to get notified of the latest episode. Luckily for us, CNBC technology and climate reporter Lora Ko
  
  Read more

• MMAI! Watch the moment a robot is DECAPITATED during a brutal humanoid cage fight - yet keeps fighting

  20-07-2026 14:38 via dailymail.com
  
  Shocking footage has emerged from China , showing two humanoids battling it out in a mixed martial arts (MMA) fight.
  
  Read more

• 'Potentially hazardous' asteroid will be visible to 90% of Earth's population during an 'ultra close' flyby, new maps reveal

  20-07-2026 14:15 via dailymail.com
  
  A 'potentially hazardous' asteroid will be visible with the naked eye for 90 per cent of the world's population, scientists have revealed.
  
  Read more

• Infosec expert: Paidwork users' data pwned after 23M-record database dumped online

  20-07-2026 14:00 via theregister.com
  
  More than 23 million people who signed up to earn money from online gigs have allegedly had their personal and financial information spilled onto the internet following a breach of microtask platform Paidwork. The incident was added to Troy Hunt's Have I Been Pwned site after a database allegedly stolen from Paidwork was publicly released earlier this month. According to the breach notification service, the leak contains data on 23,272,765 users and traces back to an intrusion in March. The data
  
  Read more

• Microsoft rushes out Windows fix for Dell's hot and bothered PCs

  20-07-2026 13:15 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has dispatched an out-of-band update to fix an incompatibility on certain Dell models and clear the way for them to receive the July 2026 Windows security patch. The update addresses an issue with the Intel Innovation Platform Framework drive that could "cause changes in performance, power consumption, or system behavior." The fix has arrived for Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2 as KB5121767, with a separate OOB hotpatch, KB5121768, for eligible Windows 11 Enterprise devices enrolled in hotpat
  
  Read more

• The science of a sub-four-minute mile: As Josh Kerr smashes the world record, experts reveal how the Scottish athlete's supershoes, 'speed suit', and strong stature helped him to make history

  20-07-2026 12:47 via dailymail.com
  
  This weekend, 28-year-old Josh Kerr ran a mile in just three minutes and 42.66 seconds. Now, scientists have revealed the secret to Kerr's incredible success.
  
  Read more

• UK's seventh prime minister in a decade says he'll ditch digital ID scheme

  20-07-2026 12:31 via theregister.com
  
  Andy Burnham is barely through the door at No. 10, and one of Keir Starmer's flagship tech projects is already heading for the shredder, with the incoming prime minister set to scrap the UK's digital ID scheme while creating a Cabinet-level minister for artificial intelligence. The move, reported by Reuters, kills off a policy Starmer spent the past year championing. His government pitched digital identity as a way to crack down on illegal working, held closed-door meetings on how to build it, a
  
  Read more

• Major glitch in Matrix as UK government projects watchdog rates shared services cluster red

  20-07-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  The UK government has admitted that two major planks of its multibillion-pound shared services strategy are in serious trouble. Matrix, a project that involves moving nine government departments to shared ERP and HR systems, has been rated red by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which monitors the planning and delivery of major government projects. This rating means the project has "major issues" with its schedule, budget, quality, or delivery of benefits
  
  Read more

• Super El Niño could spark a surge in SHARK attacks - as great whites venture beyond their natural habitats in search of cooler waters, scientists warn

  20-07-2026 11:18 via dailymail.com
  
  The Super El Niño could not only wreak havoc on global weather systems - but could also spark a surge in great white shark attacks.
  
  Read more

• Airbus takes flight from AWS. What happens next is critical

  20-07-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  OPINION European aerospace giant Airbus has lined up on the runway and is pushing the throttles forward as it prepares to evict apps from America. Airbus has named French cloud services provider Scaleway as the destination for some 900 applications, with an initial 70 getting priority onboarding, as it seeks to put critical systems and data under European control. AWS, like all American platforms, can't protect Airbus's crown jewels from Donnie the Data Burglar, so it's best to repatriate them s
  
  Read more

• Auditors tell UK government to do the math before banking on £45B AI savings

  20-07-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  UK government auditors are calling for officials to consider the impact of AI on the size of the workforce needed for the civil service and wider public sector. The National Audit Office (NAO) recommends civil service leaders to "reflect the impact of major technological change in their long-term workforce planning," including on "workforce size, roles and grades, tasks and skills." These are among the workforce changes on which senior management should focus "to realize productivity benefits fr
  
  Read more

• High hardware costs see Red Hat offer a two-server edge rig, no mini-PC required

  20-07-2026 09:24 via theregister.com
  
  Red Hat has come up with a way to reduce the quantity of servers needed for high-availability edge deployments of its OpenShift platform, because its customers worry about high hardware costs. The IBM business unit’s Daniel Froehlich and Paul Lancaster last week introduced Red Hat’s approach in a post that saw the pair observe interest in “alternative topologies for large-scale edge deployments” due to “the prohibitive cost of powering, maintaining, and deploying a
  
  Read more

• Comment in code read 'Dear future me, sorry I wrote this'

  20-07-2026 08:30 via theregister.com
  
  WHO, ME? Regrets? We've had a few. And so have many readers of The Register, who we try to help by getting their stories of workplace mistakes off their chests every Friday in a reader-contributed column we call "Who, Me?" This week, meet a reader who asked to be Regomized as "Johnny," who told us he was once hired as a Visual Basic developer, a job he thought was beneath him. He got on with things anyway, until he was given a new project that he decided to write in C# despite that language bein
  
  Read more

Follow @scitech_UK on Twitter!