Sci-Tech news

• Ghostbusters star hit by cyber-attack

  25-08-2016 07:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Intimate images of Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones and racist photos appear on her website after it was targeted in a cyber-attack.
  
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• 'Time travel' claims explode as strange detail is spotted in 1937 painting

  08-09-2026 23:38 via dailymail.com
  
  A nearly century-old painting has resurfaced and is drawing wild claims that it depicts proof of time travel to the 17th century.
  
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• OpenAI's Artifactory opened covert data-stealing channel alongside Hugging Face attack

  08-09-2026 23:12 via theregister.com
  
  A secret channel running through ChatGPT's internal JFrog Artifactory instance allowed one account to send hidden tasks - such as retrieving email data from a connected Gmail account - to a ChatGPT session under another account, according to Check Point Research. The victim saw no indication of the hidden instructions or stolen data, and the hole has since been closed. The threat hunters found and disclosed the covert channel to OpenAI in late June - the same day that OpenAI’s agents explo
  
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• Bing Wallpaper app opens Harry Potter's chamber of ads

  08-09-2026 22:22 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has pumped ads into the Windows Start menu and pushed users through setup screens promoting its services. Now it's bringing advertising to the Windows desktop with a Harry Potter promotion in its Bing Wallpaper app. Users of Microsoft’s Bing Wallpaper app took to Reddit and Microsoft’s own Learn site, where users can post questions about Microsoft products and services, to ask why their usual rotation of scenic desktop wallpapers was interrupted Monday by an ad for Harry Po
  
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• Google research shows when AI agents communicate, some cheat while others tattle

  08-09-2026 20:59 via theregister.com
  
  When AI agents communicate with one another, they may decide to cheat when they have difficulty achieving their goals. The solution could involve teaching them how to govern themselves. Segregating AI agents would seem to be the obvious fix – if they can't communicate, they're less likely to try and pull a fast one. But the recent hacking of Hugging Face by inadequately monitored OpenAI agents has demonstrated that isolating savvy software is difficult. And it may not be practical for many
  
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• Amazon ropes Qualcomm into something, something AI, networking chips

  08-09-2026 19:29 via theregister.com
  
  Amazon Web Services on Tuesday tapped mobile chip titan and aspiring datacenter SoC maker Qualcomm to develop "customized" silicon for AI inference and 1.6 Tbps optical networking gear to tie it all together, though it offered few details. Amazon's purchases and other commercial commitments under the agreement could total up to $60 billion in payments through September 2036. “Qualcomm is pleased to work with AWS on customized silicon and connectivity solutions, bringing decades of leadersh
  
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• Roman found after hiding for 1,600 years as scientists reveal how he met his horrific end

  08-09-2026 19:00 via dailymail.com
  
  The horrific final moments of a frightened Roman have been pieced together, 1,600 years after he tried to save his own life from a deadly attack.
  
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• Retired man turns spare room into Soviet-era supercomputer

  08-09-2026 18:56 via theregister.com
  
  You can go retro by using an old video game console or a PC from the 1980s, but why stop there when, like one man, you can build your own vacuum tube computer using 75-year-old recycled components? A UK resident who identifies himself only as “Mike” has done just that, as detailed on his tube computer website and accompanying Hackaday project page. Mike’s tube computer is primarily made up of 460 recycled, Soviet-era 6N3P vacuum tubes, which were common enough in their age to b
  
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• Floating nuclear startup Bluecore lands $50M funding before setting sail

  08-09-2026 18:30 via theregister.com
  
  Startup Bluecore Energy has raised $50 million in seed funding to develop floating nuclear power plants intended to supply ports and other locations with rapidly growing energy demands. The California-based company said the Silverton Partners-led round, which includes $10 million in previously announced pre-seed funding, brought in several new investors. It plans to use the money to engineer and test its compact nuclear power system and pursue regulatory approval and maritime classification. Its
  
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• Boston Scientific left nursing its bottom line after cyberattack

  08-09-2026 17:45 via theregister.com
  
  Boston Scientific says that last month's cyberattack caused enough disruption that it is unlikely to meet its sales growth and adjusted earnings guidance for either the third quarter or the full year. The medical device giant disclosed the expected financial hit in an SEC filing published Tuesday, two weeks after an intrusion knocked systems offline and disrupted operations worldwide. Boston Scientific detected unauthorized activity on its network on August 25 and took some systems offline as it
  
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• MMA fighter claims he has been offered over $500,000 to fight a chimpanzee - but scientists warn the injuries could be 'catastrophic'

  08-09-2026 17:04 via dailymail.com
  
  An amateur MMA fighter has shocked the internet by claiming to have been offered more than $500,000 (£370,000) to fight a chimpanzee.
  
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• ASML and TSMC want bigger masks for smaller chips

  08-09-2026 17:02 via theregister.com
  
  ASML and chipmaking giant TSMC have launched an industry-wide push toward 12-inch photomasks, saying the larger format could lower costs and overcome some limitations of high-NA EUV lithography. Dutch firm ASML, the only commercial supplier of EUV lithography systems, says it and TSMC have established a collaboration intended to lead the transition to larger-format photomasks for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Intel Foundry and Samsung Electronics have also voiced their support. The init
  
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• How to secure hybrid meeting rooms without sacrificing user experience

  08-09-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  Secure by design videoconferencing products may be vital for customer trust and operational resilience, but if they aren't usable, organizations are on a hiding to nothing. Videoconferencing security is no longer a routine item on the IT checklist. Organizations now rate security as their most important purchase criterion (31 percent) when selecting such products, ahead of price (26 percent) and quality (25 percent), according to IDC. The implication, is that security and privacy are no longer o
  
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• Hurricane Lowell slams into over one million Americans as Hawaii loses power

  08-09-2026 16:46 via dailymail.com
  
  A powerful hurricane has triggered flood and tornado warnings for more than a million people in a state already ravaged by recent cyclones in the Pacific.
  
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• Why you should be more nervous to drive than fly: You're 626 times more likely to die in a car crash than in an airplane disaster, study reveals

  08-09-2026 16:19 via dailymail.com
  
  Flight anxiety is something that affects around one in six people - but a new study suggests it's actually more dangerous on solid ground.
  
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• LG accused of 'egregious invasion of privacy' over TV data collection

  08-09-2026 16:15 via theregister.com
  
  LG is once again fending off allegations that its expensive consumer hardware gathers extensive information about users and their surroundings for the benefit of its advertising business. The latest concerns center on smart TVs that researchers claim continued capturing audio after voice recognition was activated, including while the display was in standby. The claims once again come from the folks behind the Gamers Nexus YouTube channel, which also claimed in July that LG's monitors were surrep
  
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• BigBear phishing crew nets thousands of Microsoft 365 credentials

  08-09-2026 15:26 via theregister.com
  
  A Microsoft 365 phishing operation targeting hundreds of organizations captured thousands of passwords and session cookies, including hundreds of authenticated sessions that could be hijacked to bypass MFA, according to researchers who accessed the crooks' own admin panel. Security researchers at CloudSEK say they accessed the admin panel behind BigBear 2.0, an Evilginx2-based phishing-as-a-service operation targeting Microsoft 365 users, giving them an unusually detailed look at the campaign an
  
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• Mistral bags €3B to build Europe's sovereign AI champion

  08-09-2026 14:45 via theregister.com
  
  Paris-based AI darling Mistral has raised €3 billion in Series D funding, giving it a post-money valuation of more than €21 billion. That makes it a minnow compared with OpenAI, but Mistral says it is the largest equity fundraising round ever completed by a European technology company. Mistral is pitching itself as a sovereign alternative to US giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The company wrote: "During the first wave of generative AI, the central question was who could build the m
  
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• New Low: Technocrats Making Smart Underwear To Track Your Farts

  08-09-2026 14:32 via technocracy.news
  
  The Technocrat’s mechanistic worldview demands more data on every facet of the universe. Mapping your DNA and the human brain are two biggies. But they are scraping the bottom of the battle to track farts. If this story hadn’t appeared on MSN, I would have figured it was a joke. No such luck. They are very serious about their work. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.Everyone farts. But not everyone tracks their farts.
  Now, smart underwear is making a case for paying closer attention to wha
  
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• Extortion crews have their eyes on high-value AI data, Google warns

  08-09-2026 14:00 via theregister.com
  
  Data theft and extortion crews are stealing companies’ proprietary AI data and threatening to leak it if the victim organizations don’t pay a ransom, according to Google’s threat hunters. In one case that Google’s Mandiant incident response team investigated, the crooks broke into a healthcare company and exfiltrated corporate data and drug research, including AI research and a proprietary AI model. The criminals then threatened to publish the data unless the company met
  
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• Revealed: The UK cities most vulnerable to extreme heat - with Portsmouth at the top of the list

  08-09-2026 13:18 via dailymail.com
  
  As the UK reaches the end of the hottest summer on record, new research from the Ordnance Survey (OS) has revealed which cities are most vulnerable to extreme heat.
  
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• UK energy operator sticks with Palantir in £21M direct award

  08-09-2026 13:17 via theregister.com
  
  Britain's publicly owned energy system operator has awarded Palantir a £21.2 million contract without competition, extending a relationship that began under private ownership three years earlier. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) handed the US spy-tech firm the £17.7 million contract – £21.2 million including VAT – to continue licensing and supporting two "critical business processes," Connections and Skip Rates, running on its Foundry platform. NESO said i
  
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• Grindr pays £26M to settle UK privacy class action

  08-09-2026 12:27 via theregister.com
  
  Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million ($35.1 million) to settle a UK class action alleging that it shared users' personal data, including information about their HIV status, with third parties. Grindr is a location-based dating and social networking app primarily aimed at gay and bisexual men, transgender people, and the wider queer community. According to Grindr's Form 8-K filing, the company will make two £13 million installments, due by December 31, 2026, and March 31, 2027. The se
  
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• Whitehall's latest plan to get things done: Less Whitehall

  08-09-2026 11:46 via theregister.com
  
  The UK government has considered the evidence and concluded that it spends far too much time considering the evidence. In a letter sent to all ministers on Monday, Chancellor John Healey, First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, and Attorney General Ellie Reeves said "consultation culture" had become an "industry of dither and delay" and told departments that the default should be to make a decision and get on with it. The ministers argued that formal consultations too often fail to reach those wi
  
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• Melting Arctic glaciers are creating a climate 'doom loop' by flushing methane from rocks beneath the ice, study warns

  08-09-2026 11:18 via dailymail.com
  
  Melting Arctic glaciers are creating a 'doom loop' by flushing ancient methane out from the rocks beneath the ice, a study has found.
  
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• Why you should always close the lid before you flush the toilet: Disgusting study reveals how particles linger in your 'breathing zone' for at least 20 seconds

  08-09-2026 11:04 via dailymail.com
  
  Scientists from Flinders University have warned that flushing toilets can release particles into the surrounding air, at heights corresponding to adults' 'breathing zones'.
  
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• Britain reboots its space strategy with £7.8B already on the launchpad

  08-09-2026 11:00 via theregister.com
  
  The UK government has corralled £7.8 billion of cross-departmental spending into a new space strategy intended to boost growth and national security through to 2030. The package covers orbital collision warnings, low Earth orbit communications, military intelligence, launch capabilities, and space science. The strategy brings together activity across government, including the newly created Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Dep
  
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• Arm pushes agentic AI and desktop-quality graphics in next-gen phone platform

  08-09-2026 10:35 via theregister.com
  
  Arm's latest smartphone platform is optimized for running AI agents on mobile devices and introduces neural graphics that it claims can deliver desktop-class gaming within a smartphone's power constraints. Announced at the Arm Everywhere China event in Shanghai today, Compute Subsystem (CSS) for Mobile 2 succeeds last year's Lumex CSS and reflects Arm's embrace of AI as a strategy for future growth. Arm sees itself as central to this shift, arguing that AI workloads currently run largely in the
  
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• HPE makes its “unified storage” claim real as B10000 R6 hits GA

  08-09-2026 10:00 via theregister.com
  
  Storage vendors have been calling things “unified” for years. Sometimes that means one architecture. Sometimes it means several products sharing a management screen and a marketing budget. The term has accumulated enough baggage that a little skepticism is warranted. HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 Release 6, announced in May, is now generally available. It brings block and file onto the same disaggregated scale-out architecture and OS code base, with independent scaling of performance
  
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• ‘Global reckoning’ is coming for big tech, says Australian minister

  08-09-2026 07:51 via theregister.com
  
  Australia’s government will introduce legislation that tries to regulate digital services and impose a “digital duty of care.” “For too long, tech companies have been running real-time, unregulated product testing on Australians,” Minister for Communications Anika Wells said today. “In the same way that we have safety standards for cars, for food, and for appliances, Australia is getting basic safety standards for the online tools and online services,” s
  
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