ICT news

• Ex-eBay Execs Heading To Prison For Harassing Couple Behind Newsletter

  29-09-2022 23:22 via news.slashdot.org
  Two former eBay security executives were sentenced to prison on Thursday for carrying out a campaign to harass and intimidate a Massachusetts couple through threats and disturbing home deliveries after their online newsletter drew the ire of the company's then-CEO. From a report: Jim Baugh and David Harville were sentenced to 57 and 24 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in an extensive harassment campaign that involved sending the couple cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody Ha
  
  Read more

• VMWare Releases Guidance for VirtualPITA, VirtualPIE, and VirtualGATE Malware Targeting vSphere

  29-09-2022 23:13 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: September 29, 2022
  VMWare has released Protecting vSphere From Specialized Malware, addressing malware artifacts known as VirtualPITA (ESXi & Linux), VirtualPIE (ESXi), and VirtualGATE (Windows), which are used to exploit and gain persistent access to instances of ESXi.CISA urges organizations employing VMWare ESXi to review the following for more information and to apply recommended mitigations and threat hunting guidance:VMware: Protecting vSphere From Specialized Ma
  
  Read more

• Physician Burnout Has Reached Distressing Levels, New Research Finds

  29-09-2022 22:41 via science.slashdot.org
  Ten years of data from a nationwide survey of physicians confirm another trend that's worsened through the pandemic: Burnout rates among doctors in the United States, which were already high a decade ago, have risen to alarming levels. From a report: Results released this month and published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a peer-reviewed journal, show that 63 percent of physicians surveyed reported at least one symptom of burnout at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, an increase from 44 per
  
  Read more

• The CIA Just Invested in Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Technology

  29-09-2022 22:02 via science.slashdot.org
  As a rapidly advancing climate emergency turns the planet ever hotter, the Dallas-based biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences has a vision: "To see the Woolly Mammoth thunder upon the tundra once again." Founders George Church and Ben Lamm have already racked up an impressive list of high-profile funders and investors, including Peter Thiel, Tony Robbins, Paris Hilton, Winklevoss Capital -- and, according to the public portfolio its venture capital arm released this month, the CIA. From a r
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Mystery Hackers Are 'Hyperjacking' Targets for Insidious Spying

  29-09-2022 21:25 via it.slashdot.org
  For decades, security researchers warned about techniques for hijacking virtualization software. Now one group has put them into practice. From a report: For decades, virtualization software has offered a way to vastly multiply computers' efficiency, hosting entire collections of computers as "virtual machines" on just one physical machine. And for almost as long, security researchers have warned about the potential dark side of that technology: theoretical "hyperjacking" and "Blue Pill" attacks
  
  Read more

• Meta Announces Hiring Freeze, Warns Employees of Restructuring

  29-09-2022 20:47 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, said it will freeze hiring and restructure some teams in an effort to cut costs and shift priorities. From a report: Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the social networking company's freeze during a weekly Q&A session with employees, according to a person in attendance. He added that the company would reduce budgets across most teams, even teams that are growing, and that individual teams will sort out how to handle headcou
  
  Read more

• New York To Mandate Zero-Emission Vehicles in 2035

  29-09-2022 20:06 via tech.slashdot.org
  All new vehicles purchased in New York will need to be zero-emission models beginning in 2035, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced on Thursday. From a report: "We're really putting our foot down on the accelerator and revving up our efforts to make sure we have this transition -- not someday in the future, but on a specific date, a specific year -- by the year 2035," Hochul said at a press conference in White Plains, N.Y. After careening into the Chester-Maple Parking Lot in a white Chevy Bolt, Hoch
  
  Read more

• NASA Spacecraft Buzzes Jupiter Moon Europa, Closest in Years

  29-09-2022 19:00 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA's Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter's tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. From a report: Juno on Thursday zipped within 222 miles (357 kilometers) of Europa, thought to have an ocean flowing beneath its thick frozen crust, raising the possibility of underwater life. Scientists hope to get lucky and observe possible water plumes shooting from the surface of Europa, close in size to Earth's moon. "We have to be at the right place at just the right time,
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Google is Shutting Down Stadia

  29-09-2022 18:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming service. From a report: The service will remain live for players until January 18th, 2023. Google will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store as well as all the games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store. Google expects those refunds will be completed in mid-January. "A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia," Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog post. "And
  
  Read more

• CISA Publishes User Guide to Prepare for Nov. 1 Move to TLP 2.0

  29-09-2022 18:15 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: September 29, 2022
  CISA has published its Traffic Light Protocol 2.0 User Guide and Traffic Light Protocol: Moving to Version 2.0 fact sheet in preparation for its November 1, 2022 move from Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) Version 1.0 to TLP 2.0.Managed by the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), TLP is a system of markings that communicates information sharing permissions. According to FIRST, the purpose of TLP is "to facilitate greater sharing of pote
  
  Read more

• Saudi Arabia To Invest $37 Billion in Gaming

  29-09-2022 18:04 via games.slashdot.org
  Saudi Arabia's government-funded gaming conglomerate The Savvy Gaming Group will invest $37.8 billion in gaming as part of a controversial effort to expand the kingdom's role in the sector. From a report: Savvy is primed to buy up a lot of gaming companies and start many of its own. Savvy has earmarked more than $13 billion "for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher to become a strategic development partner," according to the kingdom's press agency. Another $18 billion is p
  
  Read more

• Microsoft is Phasing Out SwiftKey for iOS

  29-09-2022 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Questions about what's going on with Microsoft's support of the predictive SwifKey keyboard app for iOS have been bubbling up over the past few weeks. A Reddit thread from a month ago highlighted the lack of updates to the app for more than a year. When a reader asked recently for an update on the situation, I asked Microsoft. The official word is in. On September 28, a spokesperson emailed the following statement, attributable to Chris Wolfe, Director Produc
  
  Read more

• Japan Should Consider Allowing Medical Cannabis, Health Panel Says

  29-09-2022 16:49 via science.slashdot.org
  Japan -- which has strict laws against the use of marijuana -- should consider approving the import, manufacture and use of medicines derived from cannabis, subject to the same approval process as pharmaceuticals, a health ministry panel said. From a report: At the same time, the country should do more to discourage recreational use of the plant, the committee said in its findings following a meeting Thursday. Possession of cannabis is illegal but not its use; the panel recommended that unsancti
  
  Read more

• Meta Cracks Down on Ad-Free Instagram Client a Day After It Launched

  29-09-2022 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  A third-party Instagram app, called "The OG App," which promised an ad-free feed more like the original Instagram experience, has been pulled from Apple's App Store just one day after it officially launched. It's not clear if Apple pulled the app at the request of Meta, but the social network confirmed it had taken "enforcement actions" against the service. From a report: "This app violates our policies and we're taking all appropriate enforcement actions," a Meta spokesperson said in a statemen
  
  Read more

• ARM Founder: UK Has 'No Chance In Hell' of Making Its Own Tech Champs

  29-09-2022 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The UK has "no chance in hell" of becoming technologically sovereign, Hermann Hauser, the co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and Acorn Computers, said at Bloomberg's Technology Summit in London. Hauser emphasized the need for Europe and the UK to have access to critical technologies so it is not dependent on countries like the US. He mentioned former US President Donald Trump, who he said used semiconductor design software as "a weapon to f
  
  Read more

• Google Is Making It Easier To Find Search Results From Reddit and Other Forums

  29-09-2022 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forum sites. Engadget reports: The search engine is adding a new module that will surface discussions happening on forums across the web for queries that may benefit from crowd-sourced answers. The "discussions and forums" module will surface relevant posts from sites like Reddit and Quora alongside more traditional search results. It's not clear exactly how Google is determining what types of searches are best suited to for
  
  Read more

• An All-Electric Passenger Plane Completed Its First Test Flight

  29-09-2022 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  A prototype all-electric passenger plane took off for the first time yesterday in a test flight that marks a significant milestone for carbon pollution-free aviation. The Verge reports: The nine-passenger commuter aircraft called Alice took off at 7:10AM yesterday from Washington state's Grant County International Airport. Alice is ahead of much of the pack when it comes to all-electric aircraft under development. It could become the "first all-new, all-electric commercial airplane" if the Feder
  
  Read more

• Scientists Create AI-Powered Laser Turret That Kills Cockroaches

  29-09-2022 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Everyone wants to be able to just zap a bug and have it go away. But now, thanks to a recent development from Ildar Rakhmatulin, a research associate at Heriot-Watt University interested in machine learning and engineering, this dream is now a reality. In the study -- which was conducted last year but published in Oriental Insects last week -- Rakhmatulin and his co-authors used a laser insect control device automated with machine vision to p
  
  Read more

• Bipedal Robot Sets Guinness World Record For Robotic 100-Meter Sprint

  29-09-2022 04:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  A droid named Cassie has set a Guinness World Record for the 100-meter dash by a bipedal robot, "an impressive demonstration of robotics and engineering," reports New Atlas. From the report: Cassie is the brainchild of Agility Robotics, a spin-off company from Oregon State University, and was introduced in 2017 as a type of developmental platform for robotics research. And Cassie has continued to come along in leaps and bounds since then, in 2021 demonstrating some impressive progress by complet
  
  Read more

• EU Proposes Rules Making It Easier To Sue Drone Makers, AI Systems

  29-09-2022 03:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  The European Commission on Wednesday proposed rules making it easier for individuals and companies to sue makers of drones, robots and other products equipped with artificial intelligence software for compensation for harm caused by them. Reuters reports: The AI Liability Directive aims to address the increasing use of AI-enabled products and services and the patchwork of national rules across the 27-country European Union. Under the draft rules, victims can seek compensation for harm to their l
  
  Read more

• Kindle Scribe Brings Writing To Amazon's Popular E-Reader

  29-09-2022 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  [T]he Scribe brings something altogether new to the line: writing. For the first time since the first Kindle was introduced in late-2007, Amazon's added the ability to write on-device with a stylus. TechCrunch reports: Amazon's entry in the space has a 10.2-inch screen and a design partially reminiscent of the premium Kindle Oasis, include a large side bezel (no page turn buttons, unfortunately) you can hold onto while reading. It has a battery the company rates at "weeks," keeping in line with
  
  Read more

• Podcasters Are Buying Millions of Listeners Through Mobile-Game Ads

  29-09-2022 02:02 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Podcasters are always hunting for new, flashy places to promote their shows, ranging from billboards to floats in parades to airplane banners. Some networks, though, have uncovered a less-glamorous, yet highly effective way to gain millions of bankable listeners: loading up mobile games with a particular kind of ad. Each time a player taps on one of these fleeting in-game ads -- and wins some virtual loot for doing so -- a podcast episode begin
  
  Read more

• DocuSign Cuts Workforce By 9% As Part of Restructuring Plan

  29-09-2022 01:20 via slashdot.org
  DocuSign will lay off 9% of its workforce as part of a major restructuring plan, the company announced Wednesday. The decision comes a week after former Google executive, Allan Thygesen, was named the new CEO, and three months after the software maker lost more than 60% of its value year to date. CNBC reports: The plan is designed to support the company's growth and profitability objectives and improve its operating margin. As of January, DocuSign had 7,461 employees, and it said the restructuri
  
  Read more

• Fast Company Hackers Sent Out Obscene Push Notifications To Apple News Users

  29-09-2022 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  Hackers infiltrated Fast Company's push notifications to send out racial slurs on Tuesday night. They also stole a database that includes employees' emails, password hashes for some of them and unpublished drafts, among other information. Customer records are safe, though, most likely because they're kept in a separate database. Engadget reports: In a statement, Fast Company has told Engadget that its Apple News account was hacked and was used to send "obscene and racist" push notifications." It
  
  Read more

• Google Fiber Touts 20Gbps Download Speed In Test, Promises Eventual 100Gbps

  29-09-2022 00:02 via mobile.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google Fiber is touting a test that delivered 20Gbps download speeds to a house in Kansas City, calling it a milestone on the path to offering 100Gbps symmetrical Internet. The company said it will also offer new multi-gigabit tiers in the near future. "We used to get asked, 'who needs a gig?' Today it's no longer a question," Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain wrote in a blog post yesterday. "Every major provider in the US seems to have now gotten
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!