Sci-Tech news

• US man pleads guilty to game hacking charges

  09-11-2018 13:06 via bbc.co.uk
  Gamers were prevented from playing for hours by attacks that targeted popular titles
  
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• Thoughts return to forbidden RAM upgrades as Raspberry Pi OS gets fresh lick of paint

  23-09-2026 17:09 via theregister.com
  
  Raspberry Pi OS has gained a new desktop layout, while surging memory prices have revived a row over firmware that restricts RAM upgrades. Although Raspberry Pi doesn't emphasize version numbers in its materials, the updated operating system's splash screen identifies it as version 6.3, dated September 2026. Its long-running release notes document details the changes. This time around, the desktop GUI gets a visible revamp. In place of the vintage-Windows-style taskbar, users can now choose a do
  
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• Academic publisher Elsevier hit by LAPSUS$ redirect attack

  23-09-2026 17:08 via theregister.com
  
  Academic publishing giant Elsevier confirmed a compromise this week after students found its platform redirecting users to a cybercriminal crew's leak page. One Reddit user, a self-described nursing student, highlighted the issue on September 22, posting a screenshot of LAPSUS$’s leak site after trying to access “homework and textbooks.” “Every time I try to open the Elsevier website, I am met with this,” they wrote. “Anyone know anything or have any explanati
  
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• Closing the observability gap for the AI-ready enterprise

  23-09-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  The modern enterprise is a digital enterprise. From the back office to the factory floor, connected systems and digital services form the operational backbone on which all else depends. So when disruption hits, it can have a huge financial, reputational, productivity, and even compliance impact. This has raised observability to a board-level issue. "For a public company, a material cyber incident is a disclosure obligation. You're on a four-business-day clock from the moment you determine its ma
  
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• From Climate Doom To AI Apocalypse: Same Fear Playbook

  23-09-2026 16:47 via technocracy.news
  
  Technocrats drove climate doom, then the COVID doom, and now the AI doom machine: in each case, we are all gonna die. In each case, the object was to move humanity toward Technocracy. This has nothing to do with being “left” or “right”. Technocrats are low-ball destroyers of political systems and will stoop to any level to get their way. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.As we pointed out last week, the narrative around AI as an existential threat to humanity merely seems like
  
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• The more Americans hear about datacenters, the less they like them

  23-09-2026 16:01 via theregister.com
  
  Americans are growing more and more wary of datacenters, with a Pew Research Center survey finding sharp rises since January in those who view the effect on the environment, energy bills, and nearby communities negatively. Pew surveyed 10,548 US adults between July 20 and August 9. Fifty-four percent said datacenters were mostly bad for the environment, up from 39 percent in January. Half said they were mostly bad for household energy costs, up from 38 percent, while 49 percent viewed them negat
  
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• Electric car drivers face paying 'tyre tax' as heavy batteries and engine power DOUBLE the risk of defects

  23-09-2026 15:40 via dailymail.com
  
  Electric cars are nearly twice as likely to suffer tyre defects compared to petrol vehicles, new research suggests.
  
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• A 1980s PDP-11 is still running Unix – and now you can watch

  23-09-2026 14:40 via theregister.com
  
  Fresh from releasing TMOG, his take on a cross-platform Task Manager upgrade, former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer has put his PDP-11 on the web. The PDP-11 is a family of minicomputers from Digital Equipment Corporation that became a fixture of computing labs and early Unix history. Plummer's machine is real 1980s hardware, still running a Unix-derived operating system. The website displays the machine's running processes, refreshing the list every few seconds. Think Task Manager for an old U
  
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• The curse of King Tutankhamun's tomb: As archaeologists plan to drill inside to look for Queen Nefertiti - the unsettling stories of people allegedly doomed after its opening

  23-09-2026 14:27 via dailymail.com
  
  As archaeologists consider drilling into suspected hidden chambers that could contain the long-lost tomb of Nefertiti, the eerie stories surrounding the so-called 'curse of the pharaoh' have resurfaced.
  
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• Scientists detect radio signals coming directly from an exoplanet for the first time

  23-09-2026 14:15 via dailymail.com
  
  Radio signals coming directly from an exoplanet, a planet outside the solar system, have been detected for the very first time.
  
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• British regulator takes a hard look at Pornhub's Apple-powered age checks

  23-09-2026 13:53 via theregister.com
  
  Ofcom has opened an investigation into whether Pornhub's Apple-based age checks are effective enough to keep children away from its adult content. The investigation will examine whether Pornhub owner Aylo complied with age assurance duties that came into force under the Online Safety Act (OSA) in July 2025. Pornhub introduced a new age assurance process for some UK users in May 2026, relying on signals supplied by Apple. The signals indicate that an iOS user may have completed Apple's age checks
  
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• Southern Water taps fiber network to sniff out leaky pipes

  23-09-2026 13:29 via theregister.com
  
  UK utility provider Southern Water is turning fiber-optic telecoms cables into underground sensors in an effort to find leaks in its water network. The privatized biz is trialing tech from Lightsonic that uses Openreach's fiber network to detect leaking pipes. Openreach - BT's infrastructure arm - and Affinity Water, which supplies parts of southern England, tested the system in March. As The Register reported at the time, the system analyzes tiny changes in light traveling through fiber-optic c
  
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• Swedish celebs campaign for public rudeness ... to prevent cyber scams

  23-09-2026 12:45 via theregister.com
  
  Swedish celebrities will front a national campaign encouraging the public to exercise their rudeness in an effort to drive down rates of cyber scams. According to Polisen, Sweden’s police authority, the country’s cybercriminals profited 5.7 billion SEK ($579.9 million USD) in 2025 alone, and their scams are especially successful when targeting the elderly. “The message is simple: Dare to be rude – it could save you from being scammed,” said the Polisen this week, an
  
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• Whisky merchant Master of Malt confirms customer data spilt

  23-09-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  Hackers have raided Master of Malt's customer database after a compromised ecommerce app gave them four days to help themselves to names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. The online booze retailer began notifying customers this week after learning that Ribon, an app connected to its BigCommerce store, had been compromised. According to an email sent to customers, seen by The Register, attackers got hold of a BigCommerce application key held by Ribon and used it to access customer d
  
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• BigCommerce app breach spills Master of Malt customer data

  23-09-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  Hackers have raided Master of Malt's customer database after a compromised ecommerce app gave them four days to help themselves to names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. The online booze retailer began notifying customers this week after learning that Ribon, an app connected to its BigCommerce store, had been compromised. According to an email sent to customers, seen by The Register, attackers got hold of a BigCommerce application key held by Ribon and used it to access customer d
  
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• Autumn is officially here…so why is it still so hot? Scientists blame the growing Super El Niño for the strangely warm weather - and say it could last for weeks

  23-09-2026 11:50 via dailymail.com
  
  The growing Super El Niño is starting to shape global weather, having smashed temperature records months before its expected peak.
  
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• Electric cars are TWICE as likely to have tyre defects as petrol vehicles, research reveals

  23-09-2026 11:41 via dailymail.com
  
  Electric cars are nearly twice as likely to suffer tyre defects compared to petrol vehicles, new research suggests.
  
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• The science of the perfect family: Parents with two daughters report the highest levels of happiness, study finds

  23-09-2026 11:24 via dailymail.com
  
  It's a question many couples grapple with - how many children should you have? Now, a study has revealed that if you want to be truly happy, two daughters should be your goal.
  
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• BT Tower's rooftop pool plan brings swimmers back down to earth

  23-09-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  London's iconic BT Tower is set to get a rooftop swimming pool in plans submitted by the developer, but it may not be quite the view that readers expect. MCR Hotels has submitted its planning application to Camden Council more than two years after BT agreed to sell the Fitzrovia landmark for £275 million ($346 million at the time). The proposal covers the Grade II-listed tower and the lower buildings around its base, with plans for a new public square, shops, restaurants, and a rooftop poo
  
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• UK’s uncrewed experimental sub shows it can fire torpedoes

  23-09-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  A British uncrewed submarine has test-fired a torpedo for the first time, demonstrating the ability of undersea drones to attack targets as well as perform reconnaissance and surveillance roles. The XV Excalibur, a 12 meter (40 ft) experimental uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV), was unveiled last year as the Royal Navy’s first large submarine drone as part of Project CETUS. According to the Prime Minister's Office, the test firing was part of the AUKUS program, a trilateral security partne
  
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• Why security belongs in the network

  23-09-2026 10:00 via theregister.com
  
  Every attack leaves a trail across the network, from initial reconnaissance to lateral movement and data exfiltration. That makes the network one of an organization’s richest sources of security intelligence. But visibility is only half the story. Because the network connects every user, device, application, and workload, it is also the natural place to verify identity, apply consistent policy, and contain suspicious activity close to its source. The result is faster detection, stronger en
  
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• Shut up and calculate: Jev's new AI primitives for coders

  23-09-2026 09:27 via theregister.com
  
  TypeSafe’s Jev, launched last week, behaves differently from the standard frontier models that everyone is now used to and has therefore quickly attracted plenty of scrutiny and interest as developers explore how to work with this technology. Jev’s output is more restricted than the chatty ask-me-anything approach of other LLM-powered chatbots. Basically, Jev is a classifier with brains. When given a set of data, it returns predefined “typed” decisions that the developer
  
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• Super El Niño could cause 451,000 deaths, scientists predict - as they call for urgent action to save lives

  23-09-2026 09:21 via dailymail.com
  
  Scientists from the University of Chicago used climate models to predict the impact the devastating climate event could have.
  
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• In the age of AI, teaching networking principles remains more important than learning protocols

  23-09-2026 08:25 via theregister.com
  
  A few weeks ago I took part in the SIGCOMM 2026 Education Workshop, provocatively titled “Networking Education in the Age of AI”. Perhaps that title isn’t provocative to most educators today, but it is to me: I’ve repeatedly voiced my skepticism about AI in education (and other fields). I was also a student in another “age of AI” in the mid-1980s, which was followed by one of several “AI Winters,” but of course that couldn’t happen again, rig
  
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• Artificial intelligence must have a new name, says politician who likes renaming bodies of water

  23-09-2026 06:32 via theregister.com
  
  US president Donald Trump has decided the term “artificial intelligence” must be abandoned, in favour of his preferred term “superintelligence.” “The word ‘artificial’ makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake,” Trump told the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday. “From this point forward, all United States documents and hopefully the world will be changed to use the much more accurate term ‘super’ as opposed to &lsquo
  
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• Revealed: The sexiest male voices, according to women - with Barack Obama, Gerard Butler and Jason Momoa in the 'sweet spot'

  23-09-2026 03:01 via dailymail.com
  
  New research has revealed a 'sweet spot' when it comes to the vocal pitch that women find sexy.
  
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• Noah's Ark resting place '100% confirmed' after 4,300 years as astonishing 'man-made' structure is detected buried deep underground

  23-09-2026 03:01 via dailymail.com
  
  After decades of investigating a mysterious formation high in the mountains, researchers have uncovered clues that point to the final resting place of Noah's Ark.
  
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• Frontier AI keeps racing despite calls to slow down

  23-09-2026 02:02 via theregister.com
  
  Despite a July open letter from AI company employees calling for frontier AI labs to slow their pace of development, a message echoed by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei earlier this month, major model releases continue to appear at quite a clip. Anthropic and OpenAI each released new versions of their Claude and GPT models on Tuesday: Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol and Luna. "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," said Amodei in an online post on September 12, 2026, reitera
  
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• Prehistoric puke! Queasy sea monsters swam to shore to vomit, Jurassic fossils reveal

  23-09-2026 01:02 via dailymail.com
  
  Prehistoric sea monsters weren't always quite so fierce as their reputation suggests, as scientists find that the queasy giants had to swim ashore to vomit.
  
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• Windows CLOSEDQUORUM malware uses AI models to autonomously select post-compromise actions

  22-09-2026 23:33 via theregister.com
  
  A new Windows malware called CLOSEDQUORUM can query up to four LLM providers - Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, and Mistral - to autonomously select from predefined post-compromise actions, including stealing users’ credentials and cryptocurrency wallets. Once deployed, the malware does not require continued commands from a human operator, according to Cisco Talos, which describes it as, to its knowledge, the first publicly documented Windows implant to use this approach for command-and-cont
  
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