ICT news

• OIN Marks 20 Years of Defending Linux and Open Source From Patent Trolls

  29-04-2025 23:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Today, open-source software powers the world. It didn't have to be that way. The Open Invention Network's (OIN) origins are rooted in a turbulent era for open source. In the mid-2000s, Linux faced existential threats from copyright and patent litigation. Besides, the infamous SCO lawsuit and Microsoft's claims that Linux infringed on hundreds of its patents cast a shadow over the ecosystem. Business leaders became worried. While SCO's attacks peter
  
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• Mastercard Gives AI Agents Ability To Shop Online for You

  29-04-2025 22:50 via news.slashdot.org
  Mastercard is working with Microsoft and other leading AI companies to give AI agents the ability to shop online and make payments on behalf of consumers. From a report: Under the new program, a shopper could prompt an AI agent -- Microsoft's Copilot, for example -- to search for a pair of yellow running shoes in a particular size.
  The agent would then search and offer the customer options, and then be able to make the purchase while also recommending the best way to pay, Mastercard said in a st
  
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• EA Lays Off Hundreds, Cancels 'Titanfall' Game

  29-04-2025 22:25 via games.slashdot.org
  Electronic Arts (EA) has laid off around 300 employees across multiple departments, including about 100 at Respawn Entertainment. IGN reports: IGN understands that these wider cuts largely impacted EA's Experiences team, which includes groups such as EA's Fan Care team and various others working on customer support and marketing, though other EA departments saw reductions as well. As with other cuts at EA, those impacted will be given the opportunity to apply for other roles internally prior to
  
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• Firefox Finally Delivers Tab Groups Feature

  29-04-2025 22:05 via news.slashdot.org
  Firefox has launched its long-awaited tab groups feature, responding to the most upvoted request in Mozilla Connect's three-year history. The feature allows users to organize tabs by name or color through a drag-and-drop interface.
  Mozilla is now developing an AI-powered "smart tab groups" feature that automatically suggests organization based on open tabs. Unlike competitors, the company said, Firefox processes this data locally, keeping tab information on the user's device rather than sending
  
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• AI-Generated Code Creates Major Security Risk Through 'Package Hallucinations'

  29-04-2025 21:25 via developers.slashdot.org
  A new study [PDF] reveals AI-generated code frequently references non-existent third-party libraries, creating opportunities for supply-chain attacks. Researchers analyzed 576,000 code samples from 16 popular large language models and found 19.7% of package dependencies -- 440,445 in total -- were "hallucinated."
  These non-existent dependencies exacerbate dependency confusion attacks, where malicious packages with identical names to legitimate ones can infiltrate software. Open source models hal
  
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• SK Telecom Offers SIM Replacements After Major Data Breach

  29-04-2025 20:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  South Korean telecom network SK Telecom is providing free SIM card replacements to all 25 million mobile subscribers following an April 19 security breach where malware compromised Universal Subscriber Identity Module data.
  Despite the company's announcement, only 6 million replacement cards will be available through May 2025. The stolen data potentially includes IMSI numbers, authentication keys, and network usage information, though customer names, identification details, and financial informa
  
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• It Could Be a $250 Billion Market, But Almost No One Is Interested

  29-04-2025 20:10 via news.slashdot.org
  Carbon removal technologies, potentially a $250 billion market, are failing to gain traction as buyers remain scarce. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a need for 10 billion metric tons of carbon removals annually by 2050, yet only 175 million tons have been sold to date -- less than 2% of requirements.
  Microsoft dominates the market, accounting for 35% of all purchases and 76% of engineered removal solutions specifically. The market suffers from significant barriers: unprov
  
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• India Court Orders Proton Mail Block On Security Grounds

  29-04-2025 19:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed India's government to block Switzerland-based email service Proton Mail, citing national security concerns and law enforcement challenges. Justice M Nagaprasanna ordered authorities to initiate proceedings under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to ban the service, while mandating immediate blocking of "offending URLs" until final decisions are made.
  The ruling followed a petition from M Moser Design Associates India, which claimed its fem
  
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• Bitcoin Mining Costs Surge Beyond Profitability Threshold

  29-04-2025 18:41 via slashdot.org
  Bitcoin mining has crossed a critical economic threshold, with costs now exceeding market value for most operators. According to data cited by CoinShares, large public mining companies spend over $82,000 to produce a single Bitcoin -- nearly double last quarter's figure -- while smaller operations face even steeper costs of approximately $137,000 per coin.
  With Bitcoin currently trading around $94,703, the math no longer works for most miners. The economics become particularly challenging in hig
  
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• Reddit Issuing 'Formal Legal Demands' Against Researchers Who Conducted Secret AI Experiment on Users

  29-04-2025 18:01 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Reddit's top lawyer, Ben Lee, said the company is considering legal action against researchers from the University of Zurich who ran what he called an "improper and highly unethical experiment" by surreptitiously deploying AI chatbots in a popular debate subreddit. The University of Zurich told 404 Media that the experiment results will not be published and said the university is investigating how the research was conducted.
  As we reported Monday, researchers
  
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• Government Hackers Are Leading the Use of Attributed Zero-Days, Google Says

  29-04-2025 17:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  Hackers working for governments were responsible for the majority of attributed zero-day exploits used in real-world cyberattacks last year, per new research from Google. From a report: Google's report said that the number of zero-day exploits -- referring to security flaws that were unknown to the software makers at the time hackers abused them -- had dropped from 98 exploits in 2023 to 75 exploits in 2024.
  But the report noted that of the proportion of zero-days that Google could attribute --
  
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• Fired Disney Employee Gets 3 Years in Prison For Hacking and Changing Menus

  29-04-2025 16:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  A former Disney employee who hacked into the company's servers to alter its restaurant menus, including falsifying allergen information and printing profane language, has been sentenced to three years in prison. From a report: Michael Scheuer, a Florida resident, was sentenced last week in federal court and ordered to pay nearly $690,000 in restitution, with most of that going to Disney. He pled guilty in January to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
  "Scheuer
  
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• OpenBSD 7.7 Released

  29-04-2025 15:00 via bsd.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader me34point5 writes: OpenBSD quietly released the new version (7.7) of its "secure by default" operating system. This is the 58th release. Changes include improved hardware and VMM support, along with many kernel improvements. This release brings several specific improvements, including performance boosts on ARM64, Arm SVE support, AMD SEV virtualization enhancements, better low-memory handling on i386, and improved suspend/hibernate and SMP performance. It also updates gr
  
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• Amazon To Display Tariff Costs For Consumers, Report Says

  29-04-2025 12:31 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon doesn't want to shoulder the blame for the cost of President Donald Trump's trade war.
  So the e-commerce giant will soon show how much Trump's tariffs are adding to the price of each product, according to a person familiar with the plan.
  The shopping site will display how much of an item's cost is derived from tariffs -- right next to the product's total listed price.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• OpenAI-Microsoft Alliance Fractures as AI Titans Chart Separate Paths

  29-04-2025 12:00 via slashdot.org
  
  The once-celebrated partnership between OpenAI's Sam Altman and Microsoft's Satya Nadella is deteriorating amid fundamental disagreements over computing resources, model access, and AI capabilities, according to WSJ. The relationship that Altman once called "the best partnership in tech" has grown strained as both companies prepare for independent futures.
  Tensions center on several critical areas: Microsoft's provision of computing power, OpenAI's willingness to share model access, and conflict
  
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• Amazon Launches First Kuiper Internet Satellites

  29-04-2025 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon successfully launched the first 27 satellites for its Project Kuiper internet constellation, kicking off a major effort to compete with Starlink by deploying over 1,600 satellites by mid-2026. It company is investing $10 billion in Kuiper and plans to begin commercial service later this year. CNBC reports: "We had a nice smooth countdown, beautiful weather, beautiful liftoff, and Atlas V is on its way to orbit to take those 27 Kuiper satellites, put them on their way and really start this
  
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• Car Subscription Features Raise Your Risk of Government Surveillance, Police Records Show

  29-04-2025 07:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Automakers are increasingly pushing consumers to accept monthly and annual fees to unlock preinstalled safety and performance features, from hands-free driving systems and heated seats to cameras that can automatically record accident situations. But the additional levels of internet connectivity this subscription model requires can increase drivers' exposure to government surveillance and the likelihood of being caught up in police investigations.
  
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• Oracle Engineers Caused Days-Long Software Outage at US Hospitals

  29-04-2025 05:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Oracle engineers mistakenly triggered a five-day software outage at a number of Community Health Systems hospitals, causing the facilities to temporarily return to paper-based patient records. From a report: CHS told CNBC that the outage involving Oracle Health, the company's electronic health record (EHR) system, affected "several" hospitals, leading them to activate "downtime procedures." Trade publication Becker's Hospital Review reported that 45 hospitals were hit.
  The outage began on April
  
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• Duolingo Will Replace Contract Workers With AI

  29-04-2025 03:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  According to an email posted on Duolingo's LinkedIn, the language learning app will "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." Co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn also said the company will be "AI-first." The Verge reports: According to von Ahn, being "AI-first" means the company will "need to rethink much of how we work" and that "making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won't get us there." As part of the shift, the company will roll out "a few constructive constra
  
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• Digital Photo Frame Company Nixplay Slashes Free Cloud Storage From 10GB To 500MB

  29-04-2025 01:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Nixplay has dramatically reduced its free cloud storage offering for digital photo frame users from the original 10GB to just 500MB. The previously announced update, which took effect last week, also removed the formerly free ability to sync Google Photos albums. Users whose accounts already exceed the new 500MB limit will find their content "restricted from sharing or viewing" unless they edit their library or purchase a subscription. Nixplay now offers two paid tiers: Nixplay Lite at $19.99 an
  
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• OpenAI Upgrades ChatGPT Search With Shopping Features

  29-04-2025 01:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  OpenAI has upgraded ChatGPT's search tool to include shopping features, allowing users to receive personalized product recommendations, view images and reviews, and access direct purchase links using natural language queries. TechCrunch reports: When ChatGPT users search for products, the chatbot will now offer a few recommendations, present images and reviews for those items, and include direct links to webpages where users can buy the products. OpenAI says users can ask hyper-specific question
  
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• Soft Vine-Like Robot Helps Rescuers Find Survivors In Disaster Zones

  29-04-2025 00:20 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  New submitter MicroBitz shares a report: SPROUT, short for Soft Pathfinding Robotic Observation Unit, is a flexible, vine-like robot developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame. Unlike rigid robots or static cameras, SPROUT can "grow" into tight, winding spaces that are otherwise inaccessible, giving first responders a new way to explore, map and assess collapsed structures. Beyond disaster response, the technology could be adapted for inspecting milita
  
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