ICT news

• 66% of Cybersecurity Analysts Experienced Burnout This Year, Report Finds

  16-12-2022 23:40 via it.slashdot.org
  Today, application security provider Promon released the results of a survey of 311 cybersecurity professionals taken at this year's Black Hat Europe expo earlier this month. Sixty-six percent of the respondents claim to have experienced burnout this year. The survey also found that 51% reported working more than four hours per week over their contracted hours. VentureBeat reports: Over 50% responded that workload was the biggest source of stress in their positions, followed by 19% who cited man
  
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• World's Largest Freestanding Cylindrical Aquarium Bursts In Berlin

  16-12-2022 23:02 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A freestanding cylindrical aquarium housing about 1,500 exotic fish burst in Berlin on Friday morning, causing a wave of devastation in and around the tourist attraction. Glass, chairs, tables and other debris were swept out of the DomAquaree complex, which includes a Radisson hotel, a museum, shops and restaurants, as 1 million liters of water poured out of the 14-meter-high (46ft) tank shortly before 6am.Police said two people sustained in
  
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• Lawsuits Suggest Some Video Game Cheating Could Be Illegal

  16-12-2022 22:20 via games.slashdot.org
  A raft of lawsuits from the games industry seeks to crack down on cheating in some popular online games, arguing that making cheats for games and even using them might be illegal. From a report: Cheating is a scourge of many online games, inspiring increasingly bold legal counteroffensives by some of the companies who make them. Those lawsuits are largely aimed against makers of cheat software, but they don't let players who use the cheats fully off the hook.Cheat-makers "induce and enable indiv
  
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• Waymo's Driverless Robotaxis Are Now Doing Airport Trips in Phoenix

  16-12-2022 21:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  Waymo is sending its fully driverless cars to handle some of the trickiest types of passenger pickups you can muster: airport trips. From a report: The company announced that customers flying in and out of Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport will now be able to hail one of the company's "rider only" vehicles, a sign that the Alphabet company is willing to take on more risk as it seeks to bolster the case for a fully autonomous taxi service. Waymo is also expanding the size of its service area in both P
  
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• Amazon's Plastic Waste Soared in 2021, Report Finds

  16-12-2022 21:01 via news.slashdot.org
  Plastic packaging waste from the online retail giant Amazon ballooned to 709 million pounds globally in 2021 -- equivalent to the weight of some 70,000 killer whales -- according to a new report published Thursday by the nonprofit Oceana. From a report: That's an 18 percent increase over Oceana's estimate of Amazon's plastic packaging for 2020, indicating a growing problem that environmental advocates -- and even Amazon's own shareholders -- say the company is doing too little to address. Amazon
  
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• Tech Groups Ask Supreme Court To Review Texas Social Media Law

  16-12-2022 20:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Trade groups that represent Meta and Alphabet's Google said they asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a Texas law that would sharply restrict the editorial discretion of social media companies. From a report: The appeal by NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association contends the Texas law violates the First Amendment by forcing social media companies to disseminate what they see as harmful speech and putting platforms at risk of being overrun by spam and bullying. The
  
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• A Stealth Effort To Bury Wood For Carbon Removal Has Just Raised Millions

  16-12-2022 19:41 via news.slashdot.org
  A California startup is pursuing a novel, if simple, plan for ensuring that dead trees keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for thousands of years: burying their remains underground. From a report: Kodama Systems, a forest management company based in the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Sonora, has been operating in stealth mode since it was founded last summer. But MIT Technology Review can now report the company has raised around $6.6 million from Bill Gates's climate fund Breakthrough Ene
  
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• Stability AI Plans To Let Artists Opt Out of Stable Diffusion 3 Image Training

  16-12-2022 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Stability AI has announced it would allow artists to remove their work from the training dataset for an upcoming Stable Diffusion 3.0 release. From a report: The move comes as an artist advocacy group called Spawning tweeted that Stability AI would honor opt-out requests collected on its Have I Been Trained website. The details of how the plan will be implemented remain incomplete and unclear, however. As a brief recap, Stable Diffusion, an AI image synthesis model, gained its ability to generat
  
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• IBM To Create 24-Core Power Chip So Customers Can Exploit Oracle Database License

  16-12-2022 18:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  IBM has quietly announced it's planning a 24-core Power 10 processor, seemingly to make one of its servers capable of running Oracle's database in a cost-effective fashion. From a report: A hardware announcement dated December 13 revealed the chip in the following "statement of general direction" about Big Blue's Power S1014 technology-based server: "IBM intends to announce a high-density 24-core processor for the IBM Power S1014 system (MTM 9105-41B) to address application environments utilizin
  
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• Tokyo To Require New Homes Be Fitted With Solar Panels From 2025

  16-12-2022 17:41 via slashdot.org
  The Tokyo metropolitan government has said that it will introduce a system requiring newly built homes to be fitted with solar panels from fiscal 2025 in a bid to reduce carbon emissions from the household sector. From a report: The first mandate of its kind in Japan comes as a revised ordinance on environmental security to introduce the system was passed Thursday by a majority vote on the final day of a regular Tokyo metropolitan assembly session.
  According to the metropolitan government, major
  
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• Google Debuts OSV-Scanner, a Go Tool For Finding Security Holes in Open Source

  16-12-2022 17:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google this week released OSV-Scanner -- an open source vulnerability scanner linked to the OSV.dev database that debuted last year. From a report: Written in the Go programming language, OSV-Scanner is designed to scan open source applications to assess the security of any incorporated dependencies -- software libraries that get added to projects to provide pre-built functions so developers don't have to recreate those functions on their own. Modern applications can have a lot of dependencies.
  
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• FBI, FDA OCI, and USDA Release Joint Cybersecurity Advisory Regarding Business Email Compromise Schemes Used to Steal Food

  16-12-2022 16:33 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: December 16, 2022
  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA OCI), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) detailing recently observed incidents of criminal actors using business email compromise (BEC) to steal shipments of food products and ingredients valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The joint CSA analyzes the common tactics, techniq
  
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• Microsoft Files Patent for Displaying Personalized Ads in Games

  16-12-2022 16:20 via games.slashdot.org
  Microsoft filed a patent describing a system that would serve personalized ad content to gamers as they play. From a report: The patent was first spotted by Gamesual, and is titled, "Providing personalized content for unintrusive online gaming experience." It describes a system whereby ads can be served to cloud-based streaming or internet-connected games, but those ads are personalized for each player. The diagrams included with the patent show personalized ads being applied to billboards in a
  
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• 'Germany's Half-a-Trillion Dollar Energy Bazooka May Not Be Enough'

  16-12-2022 15:40 via news.slashdot.org
  schwit1 writes: Germany is bleeding cash to keep the lights on. Almost half a trillion dollars, and counting, since the Ukraine war jolted it into an energy crisis nine months ago. And it may not be enough. "How severe this crisis will be and how long it will last greatly depends on how the energy crisis will develop," said Michael Groemling at the German Economic Institute (IW). "The national economy as a whole is facing a huge loss of wealth."
  The money set aside stands at up to 440 billion eu
  
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• Accounting Firm Mazars Pauses Work With Crypto Clients

  16-12-2022 15:00 via slashdot.org
  Global accounting firm Mazars is pausing its work with all cryptocurrency clients [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source] worldwide, soon after it published several "proof of reserve reports" for digital-asset platforms. From a report: Earlier this month, a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of Mazars reported on the crypto exchange Binance's bitcoin assets and bitcoin liabilities. The letter wasn't an audit report, didn't address the effectiven
  
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• Meta Halts Construction of Two Data Centers In Denmark

  16-12-2022 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta has halted construction of two data centers in Odense, Denmark, and will instead focus on a new type of data center used for artificial intelligence (AI), a spokesperson said on Thursday. Facebook-owner Meta already has two large data centers in Odense, but only one of the three other centers currently under development there will be completed. Construction on the two halted data centres in Odense began in August. However, on Tuesday Meta te
  
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• First Human Trials Test Light and Sound Therapy For Alzheimer's Disease

  16-12-2022 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has reported on the first human tests of an experimental therapy using sound and light to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). New Atlas reports: Over the last seven years, Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have been investigating an unusual hypothesis. The researchers found toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease could be eliminated from mouse brains following exposure to flickering lights. Further
  
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• Epic Is Cutting the Servers For 17 Older Online Games

  16-12-2022 08:00 via games.slashdot.org
  Fortnite developer Epic Games announced today that it will no longer provide online service or servers for 17 older games, including six from the Unreal series dating back as far as 1998, and it will end access to some additional games entirely. The shutdowns are already starting to be enacted, but won't be completed until January 24, 2023. Kotaku reports: According to its announcement blog post, Epic described its decision to quit servicing some online games as part of its move toward "solely [
  
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• Oregon Conifers Suffer Record Die-Off As Climate Crisis Hits Hard

  16-12-2022 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have discovered a record number of dead fir trees in Oregon, in a foreboding sign of how drought and the climate crisis are ravaging the American west. A recent arial survey found that more than a million acres of forest contain trees that have succumbed to stressors exacerbated by a multi-year drought. Images released by the US forest service show Oregon's lush green expanses dotted with ominous swathes of red. "It is stunning,"
  
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• Cambridge Student Solves 2,500-Year-Old Sanskrit Problem

  16-12-2022 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  A Sanskrit grammatical problem which has perplexed scholars since the 5th Century BC has been solved by a University of Cambridge PhD student. The BBC reports: Rishi Rajpopat, 27, decoded a rule taught by Panini, a master of the ancient Sanskrit language who lived around 2,500 years ago. Sanskrit, although not widely spoken, is the sacred language of Hinduism and has been used in India's science, philosophy, poetry and other secular literature over the centuries. Panini's grammar, known as the A
  
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• Dutch Chip Equipment Maker ASML's CEO Pushes Back Against US Export Rules On China

  16-12-2022 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: Peter Wennink, the chief executive of ASML Holding NV, the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, on Tuesday questioned whether a U.S. push to get the Netherlands to adopt new rules restricting exports to China make sense. "He said that following U.S. pressure, the Dutch government has already restricted ASML from exporting its most advanced lithography machines to China since 2019, something he said has benefited U.S. companies selling alternative technology,"
  
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• ChatGPT Owner OpenAI Projects $1 Billion In Revenue By 2024

  16-12-2022 01:45 via slashdot.org
  OpenAI, the research organization co-founded by Elon Musk and investor Sam Altman and backed by $1 billion in funding from Microsoft, expects $200 million in revenue next year and $1 billion by 2024. Reuters reports, citing "three sources briefed on OpenAI's recent pitch to investors": OpenAI was most recently valued at $20 billion in a secondary share sale, one of the sources said. The startup has already inspired rivals and companies building applications atop its generative AI software, which
  
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• FTX's Inner Circle Had a Secret Chat Group Called 'Wirefraud'

  16-12-2022 01:02 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Australian Financial Review: Members of the inner circle of power at collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX formed a chat group called "Wirefraud" and were using it to send secret information about operations in the lead up to the company's spectacular failure. On Monday (Tuesday AEDT) Mr Bankman-Fried denied being part of the chat saying, "If this is true then I wasn't a member of that inner circle (I'm quite sure it's just false; I have never heard o
  
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• Soyuz Spacecraft Docked To ISS Springs Coolant Leak

  16-12-2022 00:20 via science.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader necro81 writes: A Soyuz spacecraft (MS-22) docked at the International Space Station appears to have developed a coolant leak, according to NASA and various news sources. YouTuber Scott Manley has further background and explanation.The cause and severity are presently not known. There is no immediate danger to the crew. The leak was discovered during preparations for a planned spacewalk, which has since been cancelled. This Soyuz is the return spacecraft for three of the
  
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