ICT news

• America's FDA Warns About Backdoor Found in Chinese Company's Patient Monitors

  01-02-2025 23:12 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Thursday America's FDA "raised concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities" in patient monitors from China-based medical device company Contec "that could allow unauthorized individuals to access and potentially manipulate those devices," reports Reuters.The patient monitors could be remotely controlled by unauthorized users or may not function as intended, and the network to which these devices are connected could be compromised, the agency warned. The FDA also said that once these devices are
  
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• Sensitive DeepSeek Data Was Exposed to the Web, Cybersecurity Firm Says

  01-02-2025 22:09 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Reuters:
  New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz says it has found a trove of sensitive data from the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek inadvertently exposed to the open internet. In a blog post published Wednesday, Wiz said that scans of DeepSeek's infrastructure showed that the company had accidentally left more than a million lines of data available unsecured.
  Those included digital software keys and chat logs that appeared to capture p
  
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• Malicious PDF Links Hidden in Text Message Scam Impersonating US Postal Service

  01-02-2025 21:09 via it.slashdot.org
  
  SC World reports:A new phishing scam targeting mobile devices was observed using a "never-before-seen" obfuscation method to hide links to spoofed United States Postal Service (USPS) pages inside PDF files, [mobile security company] Zimperium reported Monday.
  The method manipulates elements of the Portable Document Format (PDF) to make clickable URLs appear invisible to both the user and mobile security systems, which would normally extract links from PDFs by searching for the "/URI" tag. "Our r
  
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• California Built the World's Largest Solar Power Tower Plant. Now It May Close

  01-02-2025 19:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Sometimes, government makes a bad bet..." writes the Los Angeles Times. Opening in 2014, the Ivanpah concentrated solar plant "quickly became known as an expensive, bird-killing eyesore."Assuming that state officials sign off — which they most likely will, because the deal will lead to lower bills for PG&E customers — two of the three towers will shut down come 2026. Ivanpah's owners haven't paid off the project's $1.6-billion federal loan, and it's unclear whether they'll be ab
  
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• Bluesky Grows to 30 Million Users. Threads Adds 20 Million More Just in January

  01-02-2025 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Star Wars star Mark Hamill, science fiction author William Gibson, XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe, and The Onion have joined millions of others bringing Bluesky's user count to 30 million, reports CNET. In fact Bluesky has added over 14 million users in the last three months, and for a few days in early November was adding over one million users a day. "That rate equals about 12 new users per second. The 30 million user mark compares to 9 million users in September."
  But meanwhile Meta's social
  
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• Were DeepSeek's Development Costs Much Higher Than Reported?

  01-02-2025 17:34 via slashdot.org
  
  Nearly three years ago a team of Chinese AI engineers working for DeepSeek's parent company unveiled an earlier AI supercomputer that the Washington Post says was constructed from 10,000 A100 GPUs purchased from Nvidia. Roughly six months later "Washington had banned Nvidia from selling any more A100s to China," the article notes.
  Remember that number as you read this. 10,000 A100 GPUs...DeepSeek's new chatbot caused a panic in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street this week, erasing $1 trillion fro
  
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• Police Use of AI Facial Recognition Results In Murder Case Being Tossed

  01-02-2025 16:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "A jury may never see the gun that authorities say was used to kill Blake Story last year," reports Cleveland.com.
  "That's because Cleveland police used a facial recognition program — one that explicitly says its results are not admissible in court — to obtain a search warrant, according to court documents."The search turned up what police say is the murder weapon in the suspect's home. But a Cuyahoga County judge tossed that evidence after siding with defense attorneys who argued th
  
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• Sam Altman: OpenAI Has Been On the 'Wrong Side of History' Concerning Open Source

  01-02-2025 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: To cap off a day of product releases, OpenAI researchers, engineers, and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, answered questions in a wide-ranging Reddit AMA on Friday. OpenAI the company finds itself in a bit of a precarious position. It's battling the perception that it's ceding ground in the AI race to Chinese companies like DeepSeek, which OpenAI alleges might've stolen its IP. The ChatGPT maker has been trying to shore up its rela
  
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• The 25-Year Success Story of SereneScreen

  01-02-2025 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  A recent video from retro tech YouTuber Clint "LGR" Basinger takes a deep dive into the history of the SereneScreen Marine Aquarium, exploring how former Air Force pilot Jim Sachs transformed a lackluster Windows 95 screensaver into a 25-year digital phenomenon. PC Gamer reports: The story centers on Jim Sachs, a man with one of those "they don't make this type of guy anymore" life stories so common to '80s and '90s computing, one Sachs recounted to the website AmigaLove back in 2020. After a si
  
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• TikTok's Traffic Bounces Back Despite Being Pulled Off App Stores

  01-02-2025 08:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Despite being removed from app stores and facing a potential U.S. ban, TikTok has regained nearly 90% of its user traffic, according to Cloudflare Radar. "DNS traffic for TikTok-related domains has continued to recover since service restoration, and is currently about 10% lower than pre-shutdown level," said David Belson, head of data insight at Cloudflare. CNBC reports: The data from Cloudflare shows that, for the most part, TikTok has managed to maintain the bulk of its users and creators in t
  
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• Shell Walks Away From Major New Jersey Offshore Wind Farm

  01-02-2025 04:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: In the first serious fallout from President Donald Trump's early actions against offshore wind power, oil and gas giant Shell is walking away from a major project off the coast of New Jersey. Shell told The Associated Press it is writing off the project, citing increased competition, delays and a changing market. "Naturally we also take regulatory context into consideration," spokesperson Natalie Gunnell said in an email.Shell co-own
  
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• FDA Approves Drug To Treat Pain Without Opioid Effects

  01-02-2025 03:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Bruce66423 shares a report from the Associated Press: Federal officials on Thursday approved a new type of pain pill designed to eliminate the risks of addiction and overdose associated with opioid medications such as Vicodin and OxyContin. "It's the first new pharmaceutical approach to treating pain in more than 20 years, offering an alternative to opioids and over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen. But the medication's modest effectiveness and lengthy development proc
  
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• Android 16's Linux Terminal Runs Doom

  01-02-2025 02:40 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Google is enhancing Android 16's Linux Terminal app to support graphical Linux applications, so Android Authority decided to put it to the test by running Doom. From the report: The Terminal app first appeared in the Android 15 QPR2 beta as a developer option, and it still remains locked behind developer settings. Since its initial public release, Google pushed a few changes that fixed issues with the installation process and added a settings menu to resize the disk, forward ports, and backup th
  
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• Drone Pilot To Plead Guilty In Collision That Grounded Aircraft Fighting Palisades Fire

  01-02-2025 02:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Earlier this month, a civilian drone collided with a Canadian CL-415 firefighting plane combating the Palisades Fire, causing damage that grounded the aircraft and temporarily halted all aerial firefighting operations. Federal and state officials have since identified the operator of that drone as Peter Tripp Akemann of Culver City, who has agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, pay a fine and complete community service. Prosecutors said he could still face up to a year in federal prison. The
  
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• Most Men Would Marry Their AI Girlfriends If It Were Legal

  01-02-2025 01:20 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from VICE News: EVA AI, a platform allowing you to create and connect with your own AI partner, recently surveyed 2,000 men and found that 8 in 10 would consider marrying an AI girlfriend if it were legal. Not only that, but 83% of men also believe they could form a deep emotional bond with an AI girlfriend. What's even scarier is that a whopping 78% of men surveyed said they would consider creating a replica of their ex, and three-quarters would duplicate the
  
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• Meta In Talks To Reincorporate In Texas or Another State, Exit Delaware

  01-02-2025 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Meta is in talks to move its incorporation from Delaware to Texas or other states. Reuters reports: The social media giant has talked to Texas officials about the potential changes, WSJ said, adding that the discussions predate President Donald Trump's new administration. The paperwork change would not relocate its corporate headquarters.A Meta spokesperson said that it does not plan on shifting its corporate headquarters out of Menlo Park, Calif
  
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• Swiss Tax Authority Forced To Buy Bahamas Domain Name After URL Typo

  01-02-2025 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Swiss canton ("state") of Basel-Stadt fixed a tax flyer typo by buying the incorrect domain and setting up a redirect, avoiding a $100,000 reprint cost. TechCrunch reports: As Swiss news outlet SRF reports, the Basel tax administration printed fliers that were supposed to include a URL to file taxes online. However, the Swiss country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of ".ch" was omitted, leaving just the Basel-Stadt suffix of ".bs" -- which just happens to be the ccTLD of the Bahamas.A spokespe
  
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