ICT news

• ChatGPT Now Lets You Schedule Reminders and Recurring Tasks

  14-01-2025 23:40 via slashdot.org
  
  ChatGPT can now schedule reminders and recurring tasks -- but only if you're a ChatGPT Plus, Team, or Pro subscriber. TechCrunch reports: With tasks, users can set simple reminders with ChatGPT such as, "Remind me when my passport expires in six months," and the AI assistant will follow up with a push notification on whatever platform you have tasks enabled. Users can also now set recurring requests to ChatGPT, such as, "Every Friday, give me a weekend plan based on my location and the weather f
  
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• Texas Sues Allstate For Collecting Driver Data To Raise Premiums

  14-01-2025 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Texas has sued (PDF) one of the nation's largest car insurance providers alleging that it violated the state's privacy laws by surreptitiously collecting detailed location data on millions of drivers and using that information to justify raising insurance premiums. The state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, said the lawsuit against Allstate and its subsidiary Arity is the first enforcement action ever filed by a state attorney general to enforce a
  
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• How Research Credibility Suffers in a Quantified Society

  14-01-2025 22:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Academia is in a credibility crisis. A record-breaking 10,000 scientific papers were retracted in 2023 because of scientific misconduct, and academic journals are overwhelmed by AI-generated images, data, and texts. To understand the roots of this problem, we must look at the role of metrics in evaluating the academic performance of individuals and institutions.
  To gauge research quality, we count papers, citations, and calculate impact factors. The higher th
  
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• US Removes Malware Allegedly Planted on Computers By Chinese-Backed Hackers

  14-01-2025 21:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday that it has deleted malware planted on more than 4,200 computers by a group of criminal hackers who were backed by the People's Republic of China. From a report: The malware, known as "PlugX," affected thousands of computers around the globe and was used to infect and steal information, the department said. Investigators said the malware was installed by a band of hackers who are known by the names "Mustang Panda" and "Twill Typhoon."Read more of this
  
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• Double-keyed Browser Caching Is Hitting Web Performance

  14-01-2025 21:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A Google engineer has warned that a major shift in web browser caching is upending long-standing performance optimization practices. Browsers have overhauled their caching systems that forces websites to maintain separate copies of shared resources instead of reusing them across domains.
  The new "double-keyed caching" system, implemented to enhance privacy, is ending the era of shared public content delivery networks, writes Google engineer Addy Osmani. According to Chrome's data, the change has
  
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• Nearly Three-Quarters of All Known Bacterial Species Have Never Been Studied

  14-01-2025 20:22 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Nearly three-quarters of all known bacterial species have never been studied in scientific literature, while just 10 species account for half of all published research, according to a new analysis published on bioRxiv.
  The study of over 43,000 bacterial species found that E. coli dominates with 21% of all publications, followed by human pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus. Microbes crucial for human health and Earth's ecosystems remain largely unexplored, University of Michigan biologist Paul J
  
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• Nobel Prize Winners Call For Urgent 'Moonshot' Effort To Avert Global Hunger Catastrophe

  14-01-2025 19:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates have signed an open letter calling for "moonshot" efforts to ramp up food production before an impending world hunger catastrophe. From a report: The coalition of some of the world's greatest living thinkers called for urgent action to prioritise research and technology to solve the "tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand." Big bang physicist Robert Woodrow Wilson; Nobel laureate chemist Jennifer Doudna; the Dalai Lama; economist Josep
  
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• Developer Makes Doom Run Inside a PDF File

  14-01-2025 19:01 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Programmers have found ways to run the 1993 first-person shooter Doom on an array of unexpected platforms, and now a PDF file joins that list.
  Developer ading2210's DoomPDF project shows the game operating within a document format primarily designed for static content display. The creator says he drew inspiration from pdftris, another PDF-based game port by Thomas Rinsma.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• LA Wildfires Push California Insurance Market To Its Limit

  14-01-2025 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Five wildfires in Los Angeles have already burned more than 10,000 structures, threatening to upend California's fragile balance between climate risk and home insurance. The Palisades Fire has damaged or destroyed more than 5,000 buildings in an area that liability experts had previously identified as one of three particularly vulnerable regions in the state.
  JPMorgan Chase estimates insured damages could reach $20 billion, positioning this as likely the costliest wildfire in U.S. history. The c
  
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• Meta To Cut 3,600 Jobs, Targeting Lowest Performers

  14-01-2025 17:15 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta is cutting roughly 5% of its staff through performance-based eliminations and plans to hire new people to fill their roles this year, according to a company memo. From a report: As of September, Meta employed about 72,000 people, so a 5% reduction could affect roughly 3,600 jobs. "I've decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster," Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in the note posted to an internal message board and reviewed by Bloomberg N
  
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• UK Plans To Ban Public Sector Organizations From Paying Ransomware Hackers

  14-01-2025 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  U.K. public sector and critical infrastructure organizations could be banned from making ransom payments under new proposals from the U.K. government. From a report: The U.K.'s Home Office launched a consultation on Tuesday that proposes a "targeted ban" on ransomware payments. Under the proposal, public sector bodies -- including local councils, schools, and NHS trusts -- would be banned from making payments to ransomware hackers, which the government says would "strike at the heart of the cybe
  
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• The New $30,000 Side Hustle: Making Job Referrals for Strangers

  14-01-2025 16:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Tech workers at major U.S. companies are earning thousands of dollars by referring job candidates they've never met, creating an underground marketplace for employment referrals at firms like Microsoft and Nvidia, according to Bloomberg.
  One tech worker cited in the report earned $30,000 in referral bonuses after recommending over 1,000 strangers to his employer over 18 months, resulting in more than six successful hires. While platforms like ReferralHub charge up to $50 per referral, Goldman Sa
  
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• 161 Years Ago, a New Zealand Sheep Farmer Predicted AI Doom

  14-01-2025 14:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Benj Edwards: While worrying about AI takeover might seem like a modern idea that sprung from War Games or The Terminator, it turns out that a similar concern about machine dominance dates back to the time of the American Civil War, albeit from an English sheep farmer living in New Zealand. Theoretically, Abraham Lincoln could have read about AI takeover during his lifetime. On June 13, 1863, a letter published (PDF) in The Press
  
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• Microsoft Releases January 2025 Security Updates

  14-01-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  Microsoft released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple Microsoft products. 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 and apply necessary updates:Microsoft Security Update Guide for January
  
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• CISA Releases the JCDC AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook and Fact Sheet

  14-01-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA released the JCDC AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook and Fact Sheet to foster operational collaboration among government, industry, and international partners and strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity. The playbook provides voluntary information-sharing processes that, if adopted, can help protect organizations from emerging AI threats. 
  Specifically, the playbook:Facilitates collaboration between federal agencies, private industry, international partne
  
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• Ransomware Crew Abuses AWS Native Encryption, Sets Data-Destruct Timer for 7 Days

  14-01-2025 11:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A new ransomware group called Codefinger targets AWS S3 buckets by exploiting compromised or publicly exposed AWS keys to encrypt victims' data using AWS's own SSE-C encryption, rendering it inaccessible without the attacker-generated AES-256 keys. While other security researchers have documented techniques for encrypting S3 buckets, "this is the first instance we know of leveraging AWS's native secure encryption infrastructure via SSE-C in the wild," Tim West, VP of services with the Halcyon RI
  
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• Snyk Researcher Caught Deploying Malicious Code Targeting AI Startup

  14-01-2025 10:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A Snyk security researcher has published malicious NPM packages targeting Cursor, an AI coding startup, in what appears to be a dependency confusion attack. The packages, which collect and transmit system data to an attacker-controlled server, were published under a verified Snyk email address, according to security researcher Paul McCarty.
  The OpenSSF package analysis scanner flagged three packages as malicious, generating advisories MAL-2025-27, MAL-2025-28 and MAL-2025-29. The researcher depl
  
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• US Employee Engagement Sinks To 10-Year Low

  14-01-2025 09:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Employee engagement in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, Gallup reported Tuesday, with only 31% of employees engaged. This matches the figure last seen in 2014. The percentage of actively disengaged employees, at 17%, also reflects 2014 levels. Gallup: The percentage of engaged employees has declined by two percentage points since 2023, highlighting a growing trend of employee detachment from organizations, particularly among workers younger than 35.
  These are among the find
  
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• Annual US Dementia Cases Projected to Rise to 1 Million by 2060

  14-01-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  By 2060, around one million Americans may develop dementia annually, with the lifetime risk after age 55 estimated at 42% and rising sharply with age. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Medicine. Scientific American reports: The latest forecast suggests a massive and harrowing increase from annual cases predicted for 2020, in which approximately 514,000 adults in the U.S. were estimated to be diagnosed with dementia -- an umbrella term that describes several neurological cond
  
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• Supreme Court Allows Hawaii To Sue Oil Companies Over Climate Change Effects

  14-01-2025 04:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not consider whether to quash lawsuits brought by Honolulu seeking billions of dollars from oil and gas companies for the damage caused by the effects of climate change, clearing the way for the cases to move forward. The legal battle pursued in Hawaii state court is similar to others filed against the nation's largest energy companies by state and local governments in their courts. The suits claim that t
  
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• Ministers Mull Allowing Private Firms to Make Profit From NHS Data In AI Push

  14-01-2025 01:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  UK ministers are considering allowing private companies to profit from anonymized NHS data as part of a push to leverage AI for medical advancements, despite concerns over privacy and ethical risks. The Guardian reports: Keir Starmer on Monday announced a push to open up the government to AI innovation, including allowing companies to use anonymized patient data to develop new treatments, drugs and diagnostic tools. With the prime minister and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, under pressure over B
  
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• Meta Is Blocking Links to Decentralized Instagram Competitor Pixelfed

  14-01-2025 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized, open-source Instagram competitor, labeling them as "spam" on Facebook and removing them immediately. 404 Media reports: Pixelfed is an open-source, community funded and decentralized image sharing platform that runs on Activity Pub, which is the same technology that supports Mastodon and other federated services. Pixelfed.social is the largest Pixelfed server, which was launched in 2018 but has gained renewed attention over the last week. Blue
  
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• Linus Torvalds Offers to Build Guitar Effects Pedal For Kernel Developer

  14-01-2025 00:20 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Linux creator Linus Torvalds announced a playful giveaway for kernel contributors: he'll hand-build a guitar effects pedal for one lucky developer selected at random, using his holiday hobby skills with pedal kits. To qualify, developers must have a 2024 commit in Torvalds' kernel git tree and email him with the subject "I WANT A GUITAR PEDAL". He'll pick a winner at random, use his own money to buy a pedal kit from a company called Aion FX, and then 'build it with my own shaky little fingers, a
  
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