ICT news

• In SolarWinds Case, US Judge Rejects SEC Oversight of Cybersecurity Controls

  20-07-2024 23:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  SolarWinds still faces some legal action over its infamous 2020 breach, reports NextGov.com. But a U.S. federal judge has dismissed most of the claims from America's Securities and Exchange Commission, which "alleged the company defrauded investors because it deliberately hid knowledge of cyber vulnerabilities in its systems ahead of a major security breach discovered in 2020."
  Slashdot reader krakman shares this report from the Washington Post:
  "The SEC's rationale, under which the statute must
  
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• Persian Gulf Experiences Record (and Life-Threatening) Heat Index

  20-07-2024 22:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Parts of the Persian Gulf "have seen the heat index, or how it feels when factoring in the humidity, reach 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit (60 to 65 Celsius)," reports the Washington Post, "fueled by an intense heat dome, the warmest water temperatures in the world and the influence of human-caused climate change."Temperatures at the Persian Gulf International Airport in Asaluyeh, Iran, climbed to 108 (42 C) on Wednesday and 106 (41 C) on Thursday, with both days recording a peak heat index of 149
  
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• Are There Gaps in Training for Secure Software Development?

  20-07-2024 21:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A new report "explores the current state of secure software development," according to an announcement from the Linux Foundation, "and underscores the urgent need for formalized industry education and training programs," noting that many developers "lack the essential knowledge and skills to effectively implement secure software development."The report analyzes a survey of nearly 400 software development professionals performed by and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and Linux Found
  
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• Netflix is Axing Its Cheapest Ad-Free Plan in the US

  20-07-2024 20:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN:Netflix will start phasing out its Basic plan, its cheapest advertising-free plan, which costs $11.99 per month in the United States, the company said on Thursday. The company had previously stopped accepting new sign-ups for the Basic plan, instead pushing customers to Netflix's ad-supported plan, which costs $6.99 per month. However, existing users were allowed to keep the basic plan. In January, the company said it would retire its cheapest ad-f
  
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• Southwest Airlines Avoids Cloudstrike Issues - Thanks to Windows 3.1?

  20-07-2024 19:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader Thelasko shared Friday's article from Digital Trends:Nearly every flight in the U.S. is grounded right now following a CrowdStrike system update error that's affecting everything from travel to mobile ordering at Starbucks — but not Southwest Airlines flights. Southwest is still flying high, unaffected by the outage that's plaguing the world today, and that's apparently because it's using Windows 3.1.Yes, Windows 3.1 — an operating system that is 32 years old. Southwe
  
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• Firefox 128 Criticized for Including Small Test of 'Privacy-Preserving' Ad Tech by Default

  20-07-2024 18:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "Many people over the past few days have been lashing out at Mozilla," writes the blog Its FOSS, "for enabling Privacy-Preserving Attribution by default on Firefox 128, and the lack of publicity surrounding its introduction."
  Mozilla responded that the feature will only run "on a few sites in the U.S. under strict supervision" — adding that users can disable it at any time ("because this is a test"), and that it's only even enabled if telemetry is also enabled.
  And they also emphasize that
  
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• Remembering Bob Newhart, Legendary Comedian - and Commodore PET Owner

  20-07-2024 17:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:Bob Newhart, whose stammering, deadpan unflappability carried him to stardom as a standup comedian and later in television and movies, has died at age 94. He remains best known for the television shows, "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-78) and "Newhart" (1982-90), both of which were built around his persona as a reasonable man put-upon by crazies. A younger crowd may remember Newhart from his roles in the movie "Elf" (2003) and TV's "The Big Bang Theory" (2013
  
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• Wind Turbine Blade Breaks, Washes Ashore. Power Production Shut Down as Company Faces Investigation and Litigation

  20-07-2024 16:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "More pieces of a broken wind turbine off the coast of Massachusetts are falling into the Atlantic Ocean," reports CBS News on Thursday. "The CEO of Vineyard Wind was at Nantucket's Select Board meeting Wednesday evening, apologizing and answering questions about the initial break when he suddenly had to leave because the situation is getting worse."
  CNN reports the debris has been "prompting beach closures and frustrating locals at the peak of the summer season" since the blade broke a week ago
  
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• 'Smart Soil' Grows 138% Bigger Crops Using 40% Less Water

  20-07-2024 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a "smart soil" that can keep plants better hydrated and provide a controlled release of nutrients. As reported by New Atlas, tests found that it "drastically improved crop growth while using far less water." From the report: The soil gets its "smart" moniker thanks to the addition of a specially formulated hydrogel, which works to absorb more water vapor from the air overnight, then releasing it to the plants' roots during the day. I
  
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• May Solar Superstorm Caused Largest 'Mass Migration' of Satellites In History

  20-07-2024 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A solar superstorm in May caused thousands of satellites to simultaneously maneuver to maintain altitude due to the thickening of the upper atmosphere, creating potential collision hazards as existing prediction systems struggled to cope. Space.com reports: According to a pre-print paper published on the online repository arXiv on June 12, satellites and space debris objects in low Earth orbit -- the region of space up to an altitude of 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) -- were sinking toward the p
  
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• US Will Fall Behind In the AI Race Without Natural Gas, Says Williams Companies CEO

  20-07-2024 05:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: The U.S. will fall behind in the artificial intelligence race if it does not embrace natural gas to help meet surging electricity demand from data centers, the CEO of one of the nation's largest pipeline operators told CNBC. "The only way we're going to be able to keep up with the kind of power demand and the electrification that's already afoot is natural gas," Williams Companies CEO Alan Armstrong said in an interview Thursday. "If we deny ourselv
  
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• CrowdStrike Stock Tanks 15%, Set For Worst Day Since 2022

  20-07-2024 03:50 via slashdot.org
  
  Shares of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Holdings dropped 15% on Friday after the company's software update resulted in what may turn out to be the largest IT outage ever. CrowdStrike stock "is on pace for its steepest daily loss since November 2022 and its $290 low share price is the lowest intraday mark since April 25," reports Forbes. "CrowdStrike is on track for the third-worst day in its five-year history as a publicly traded company." From the report: Microsoft, which was swept up in th
  
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• Apple Vision Pro's Content Drought Improves With New 3D Videos

  20-07-2024 03:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  More than a dozen new Immersive Videos are coming to Vision Pro, with the first, titled Boundless, launching last night. "The announcement follows a long, slow period for new Vision Pro-specific video content from Apple," writes Ars Technica's Samuel Axon. "The headset launched in early February with a handful of Immersive Video episodes ranging from five to 15 minutes each. Since then, only three new videos have been added." From the report: Tonight's Boundless episode will allow viewers to see
  
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• The Data That Powers AI Is Disappearing Fast

  20-07-2024 02:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: For years, the people building powerful artificial intelligence systems have used enormous troves of text, images and videos pulled from the internet to train their models. Now, that data is drying up. Over the past year, many of the most important web sources used for training A.I. models have restricted the use of their data, according to a study published this week by the Data Provenance Initiative, an M.I.T.-led research group. The
  
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• Nigeria Fines Meta $220 Million For Violating Consumer, Data Laws

  20-07-2024 01:50 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Nigeria fined Meta for $220 million on Friday, alleging the tech giant violated the country's local consumer, data protection and privacy laws. Reuters reports: Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said Meta appropriated the data of Nigerian users on its platforms without their consent, abused its market dominance by forcing exploitative privacy policies on users, and meted out discriminatory and disparate treatment on Nigerians, compared with other jurisdicti
  
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• OpenAI's Latest Model Closes the 'Ignore All Previous Instructions' Loophole

  20-07-2024 01:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Kylie Robison reports via The Verge: Have you seen the memes online where someone tells a bot to "ignore all previous instructions" and proceeds to break it in the funniest ways possible? The way it works goes something like this: Imagine we at The Verge created an AI bot with explicit instructions to direct you to our excellent reporting on any subject. If you were to ask it about what's going on at Sticker Mule, our dutiful chatbot would respond with a link to our reporting. Now, if you wanted
  
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• Bangladesh Is Experiencing a 'Near-Total' Internet Shutdown Amid Student Protests

  20-07-2024 01:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Bangladesh is experiencing a "near-total" nationwide internet shutdown amid government efforts to control widespread student protests against the country's quota system for government jobs. The country's quota system requires a third of government jobs be reserved for relatives of veterans who had fought for independence from Pakistan.According to Reuters, the protests "have opened old and sensitive political fault lines between those who fought for Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 197
  
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• FCC Blasts T-Mobile's 365-Day Phone Locking, Proposes 60-Day Unlock Rule

  20-07-2024 00:30 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Citing frustration with mobile carriers enforcing different phone-unlocking policies that are bad for consumers, the Federal Communications Commission is proposing a 60-day unlocking requirement that would apply to all wireless providers. The industry's "confusing and disparate cell phone unlocking policies" mean that "some consumers can unlock their phones with relative ease, while others face significant barriers," Commissioner Geoffrey St
  
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