ICT news

• NY Fed Says Months-Long Test on Digital Dollar Shows Speed Advantage

  06-07-2023 23:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A monthslong test with some of the world's largest banks found that digital dollars could be an effective way to improve domestic and cross-border payments, according to a unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A report adds: The Fed's New York Innovation Center spent 12 weeks testing a technology known as a regulated liability network, which allows banks to simulate issuing digital money representing their customers' own funds before settling through central bank reserves on a distribute
  
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• FBI Hired Social Media Surveillance Firm That Labeled Black Lives Matter Organizers 'Threat Actors'

  06-07-2023 22:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The FBI's primary tool for monitoring social media threats is the same contractor that labeled peaceful Black Lives Matter protest leaders DeRay McKesson and Johnetta Elzie as "threat actors" requiring "continuous monitoring" in 2015. From a report: The contractor, ZeroFox, identified McKesson and Elzie as posing a "high severity" physical threat, despite including no evidence that McKesson or Elzie were suspected of criminal activity. "It's been almost a decade since the referenced 2015 inciden
  
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• Threads Passes 30 Million Sign-Ups In Less Than 24 Hours

  06-07-2023 22:14 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  After surpassing 10 million sign-ups in the first seven hours, Meta's new Twitter rival, Threads, has reached a new milestone: 30 million sign-ups in less than 24 hours. TechCrunch reports: Threads passed 2 million signups in its first two hours live in the App Store and shows no signs of slowing down. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted the milestone on his Threads account. Threads was available for "preorder" through iOS, notifying users who were alerted of its existence through a flashy Instagram
  
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• OpenAI Makes GPT-4 Generally Available

  06-07-2023 22:00 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI today announced the general availability of GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, through its paid API. From a report: Starting this afternoon, all existing OpenAI API developers "with a history of successful payments" can access GPT-4. The company plans to open up access to new developers by the end of this month, and then start raising availability limits after that "depending on compute availability."
  "Millions of developers have requested access to the GPT-4 API since March, and th
  
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• Twitter Threatens To Sue Meta Over Threads

  06-07-2023 21:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over its new text-based "Twitter killer" platform, accusing the social media giant of poaching former employees to create a "copycat" application. Semafor: On Wednesday, Instagram parent company Meta introduced Threads, a text-based companion to Instagram that resembles Twitter and other text-based social platforms. Just hours later, a lawyer for Twitter, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg accusing the company of engaging in "sy
  
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• OceanGate Suspends All Exploration and Commercial Operations Following Titan Submersible Implosion

  06-07-2023 20:40 via slashdot.org
  
  OceanGate, the owner of the Titan submersible that imploded during a voyage to the Titanic, killing all five people on board, says it has suspended its exploration and commercial operations, according to its website. From a report: The company's CEO, Stockton Rush, was among those who perished when the Titan submersible imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean last month. "OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations," the top of the company's official website says. The website
  
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• Thanks To AI, San Francisco's Tech Companies Are Hiring Again

  06-07-2023 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  After months of painful job cuts, companies in San Francisco's tech sector stepped up hiring in May, spurred in part by an artificial intelligence boom, according to a new report. From a report: San Francisco and neighboring San Mateo County added 2,800 jobs in the tech sector in May, according to the city's latest employment update. The new hires mean the region has recovered 38% of jobs since a wave of industry cuts began in late 2022, said San Francisco's chief economist Ted Egan.
  "The stock
  
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• DigitalOcean Acquires Cloud Computing Startup Paperspace For $111M

  06-07-2023 19:20 via slashdot.org
  
  DigitalOcean, the cloud hosting business, today announced that it's agreed to acquire Paperspace, a New York-based cloud computing and AI development startup, for $111 million in cash. From a report: DigitalOcean CEO Yancey Spruill says that Paperspace's infrastructure and tooling, once integrated with DigitalOcean's products, will enable customers to more easily test, develop and deploy AI applications. As for Paperspace customers, they'll benefit from DigitalOcean's cloud services, he says --
  
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• Mid-1990s Sega Document Leak Shows How It Lost the Second Console War To Sony

  06-07-2023 18:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Most of the changes on the Sega Retro wiki every day are tiny things, like single-line tweaks to game details or image swaps. Early Monday morning, the site got something else: A 47MB, 272-page PDF full of confidential emails, notes, and other documents from inside a company with a rich history, a strong new competitor, and deep questions about what to do next.
  The document offers glimpses, windows, and sometimes pure numbers that explain how Sega went from a
  
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• Nine British Banks Sign Up To New AI Tool for Tackling Scams

  06-07-2023 18:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mastercard is selling a new artificial intelligence-powered tool that helps banks more effectively spot if their customers are trying to send money to fraudsters. From a report: Nine of the UK's biggest banks, including Lloyds Banking, Natwest and Bank of Scotland, have signed up to use the Consumer Fraud Risk system, Mastercard told Bloomberg News. Trained on years of transaction data, the tool helps to predict whether someone is trying to transfer funds to an account affiliated with "authorize
  
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• Amazon Sellers Say They Were Kicked Off Site After Unknowingly Hawking Stolen Goods

  06-07-2023 17:22 via slashdot.org
  
  Of the many acts that can get an Amazon merchant kicked off the site, few are as devastating as selling stolen goods. Amazon calls the behavior "illegal and strictly prohibited," and those accused of such activity can be permanently suspended. From a report: Dozens of small businesses have been booted from Amazon in recent months for purportedly hawking stolen goods from home appliance brands such as Breville, Keurig, Levoit and SharkNinja. But suspended sellers, who spent years building their b
  
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• US VC Deal Spending Falls by Half in Second Quarter, Report Says

  06-07-2023 16:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Venture capitalists are funding fewer startups, especially at the earliest stages of a company's life, according to new data from research firm PitchBook. From a report: In the US, investors financed 3,011 startup funding deals last quarter, about a third fewer than a year ago. And they spent a lot less cash: $39.8 billion, down by nearly half from the same period last year. Take out the more than $6.5 billion investors spent on payments company Stripe, and the total looks even worse, said Pitch
  
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• VR Hospitals To Be Used On Worcestershire Hospital Wards

  06-07-2023 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Virtual reality (VR) headsets are now being used on hospital wards to help keep patients calm during procedures. A trial at Kidderminster Hospital saw soothing sounds and visuals from them used to cut stress and anxiety. In one case, VR was used in place of sedation when a tube was inserted into a child's vein for blood sampling, staff said.The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust says they are now a permanent feature in its hospitals. Dawn F
  
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• Mozilla Releases Security Advisories for Thunderbird, Firefox, and Firefox ESR

  06-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Mozilla has released security advisories to address vulnerabilities in Thunderbird, Firefox, and Firefox ESR. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. 
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review the following advisories and apply the necessary updates:
  Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Firefox 115 Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2023-24
  Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Firefox ESR 102.13 Mozilla Foundation Security
  
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• CISA and Partners Release Joint Cybersecurity Advisory on Newly Identified Truebot Malware Variants

  06-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Increased Truebot Activity Infects U.S. and Canada Based Networks, to help organizations detect and protect against newly identified Truebot malware variants. Based on confirmation from open-source reporting and analytical findi
  
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• The User-Repairable Fairphone 4 Is Finally Coming To the US

  06-07-2023 12:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  The Fairphone 4 -- a user-repairable smartphone built using ethically sourced materials -- is finally coming to the US, almost two years after it first debuted back in September 2021. The Verge reports: Fairphone is partnering with Murena, a company best known for de-Googling Android phones, to launch the US pilot of the Murena Fairphone 4 -- a variant of the handset that runs on a privacy-oriented Android-based operating system: /e/OS. There are two configurations available: one with 6GB of RAM
  
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• Meta Will Nuke Your Instagram Account If You Delete Threads Profile

  06-07-2023 10:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Threads, Meta's new social app, is drawing users at an astounding pace, amassing 10 million signups in just seven hours, according to co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. But the highly-anticipated new service, which requires an Instagram account for onboarding, features an intriguing stipulation: Deleting a Threads account terminates the linked Instagram account. In a 'Supplemental Privacy Policy,' Meta explains: "You may deactivate your Threads p
  
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• Toyota Claims Solid-State Battery Has 745 Mile Range, 10 Minute Charging Time

  06-07-2023 09:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  After announcing a new electric car strategy last month, Toyota is now claiming it has made a technological breakthrough that will allow it to cut the weight, size, and cost of batteries in half. The company claims it has developed ways to make a solid-state battery with a range of 1,200 km (745 miles) that could charge in 10 minutes or less and would be simpler to manufacture than a conventional lithium-ion battery. CleanTechnica reports: On July 3, the company said it had simplified the produc
  
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• Actively Exploited Vulnerability Threatens Hundreds of Solar Power Stations

  06-07-2023 05:30 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Hundreds of Internet-exposed devices inside solar farms remain unpatched against a critical and actively exploited vulnerability that makes it easy for remote attackers to disrupt operations or gain a foothold inside the facilities. The devices, sold by Osaka, Japan-based Contec under the brand name SolarView, help people inside solar facilities monitor the amount of power they generate, store, and distribute. Contec says that roughly 30,000
  
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• UK Universities Draw Up Guiding Principles on Generative AI

  06-07-2023 04:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  UK universities have drawn up a set of guiding principles to ensure that students and staff are AI literate, as the sector struggles to adapt teaching and assessment methods to deal with the growing use of generative artificial intelligence. From a report: Vice-chancellors at the 24 Russell Group research-intensive universities have signed up to the code. They say this will help universities to capitalise on the opportunities of AI while simultaneously protecting academic rigour and integrity in
  
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• Canada Plans World's Biggest Nuclear Plant In Ontario

  06-07-2023 03:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Bruce Power, a Canadian utility company, is planning to build the world's biggest nuclear plant as growing demand for clean energy spurs interest in atomic energy. The Financial Post reports: The Ontario government said Wednesday Bruce Power will conduct an environmental assessment of adding as much as 4.8 gigawatts of capacity to its plant in Canada's most-populous province. The plant's eight reactors currently have about 6.2 gigawatts of capacity and supply 30 per cent of the province's power.
  
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• Japan May Start Controversial Fukushima Water Release Next Month

  06-07-2023 03:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A United Nations watchdog approved Japan's controversial plan to start releasing treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant next month. As Nikkei notes in its reporting, the water is still radioactive since "radioactive tritium cannot be removed with existing technology." From the report: The IAEA's report concluded that the Japanese project to release the water meets its safety standards. Japan's government in January gave the planned timing for the ocean release as "spring to summer
  
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• Macron Accused of Authoritarianism After Threat To Cut Off Social Media During Riots

  06-07-2023 02:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Emmanuel Macron is facing a backlash after threatening to cut off social media networks as a means of stopping the spread of violence during periods of unrest. The Guardian reports: Elysee officials and government ministers responded on Wednesday by insisting the president was not threatening a "general blackout" but instead the "occasional and temporary" suspension of platforms. The president's comments came as ministers blamed young people using social media such as Snapchat and TikTok for org
  
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• Spotify Stops Accepting Payments Set Up Via Apple's App Store

  06-07-2023 01:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Spotify is no longer supporting Apple's in-app purchase system. In an email to affected subscribers, Spotify says: "We're contacting you because when you joined Spotify Premium you used Apple's billing service to subscribe. Unfortunately, we no longer accept that billing method as a form of payment." Engadget reports: Spotify continues to say that those users will automatically be switched to the company's Free, ad-supported tier at the end of the current billing cycle. "If you wish to keep your
  
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• Security Researchers Latest To Blast UK's Online Safety Bill As Encryption Risk

  06-07-2023 01:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Nearly 70 IT security and privacy academics have added to the clamor of alarm over the damage the U.K.'s Online Safety Bill could wreak to, er, online safety unless it's amended to ensure it does not undermine strong encryption. Writing in an open letter (PDF), 68 U.K.-affiliated security and privacy researchers have warned the draft legislation poses a stark risk to essential security technologies that are routinely used to keep digital commu
  
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• Meta Launches New Social Media App 'Threads' To Rival Twitter

  06-07-2023 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Instagram's new Twitter competitor called Threads launched today on the web, providing an early look at what to expect from the app that will launch on iOS and Android tomorrow. You can view the web interface here. The Verge reports: Meta briefly made Threads available on the web before pulling profiles offline a few hours later. The Verge was able to access Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's first thread (is that what we call them?!) using the web app, and many other brands and creators including Netfl
  
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