ICT news

• Fake MAS Windows Activation Domain Used To Spread PowerShell Malware

  25-12-2025 22:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A typosquatted domain impersonating the Microsoft Activation Scripts (MAS) tool was used to distribute malicious PowerShell scripts that infect Windows systems with the 'Cosmali Loader'. BleepingComputer has found that multiple MAS users began reporting on Reddit yesterday that they received pop-up warnings on their systems about a Cosmali Loader infection.
  Based on the reports, attackers have set up a look-alike domain, "get[dot]activate[dot]win," which clos
  
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• Wall Street Has Stopped Rewarding 'Strategic' Layoffs

  25-12-2025 20:01 via slashdot.org
  Goldman Sachs analysts have identified a notable shift in how investors respond to corporate layoff announcements, finding that even job cuts attributed to automation and AI-driven restructuring are now causing stock prices to fall rather than rise. The investment bank linked recent layoff announcements to public companies' earnings reports and stock market data, concluding that stocks dropped by an average of 2% following such announcements, and companies citing restructurings faced even harshe
  
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• Chinese Social Media Users Criticize Authorities in Rare Sign of Dissent

  25-12-2025 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese social media users criticized two key government policies, rare signs of public dissent in the country where the internet is heavily censored. The death of the former head of China's one-child policy agency -- which for decades forced women to carry out abortions and sterilizations -- sparked criticism of the demographic effort, with one netizen lamenting the "children who were lost."
  Others, meanwhile, criticized Beijing's leadership over its ongoing
  
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• Framework Raises Memory Prices Again, Suggests Customers Bring Their Own RAM

  25-12-2025 18:01 via it.slashdot.org
  Framework has announced yet another price increase for memory modules, the second in roughly a month, and the company is now actively encouraging customers to source their own RAM elsewhere if they can find better deals. The laptop maker cited "extreme memory shortages and price volatility" as the reason for the hike, noting that 32GB modules and smaller currently cost around $10 per gigabyte while 48GB modules run approximately $13 per gigabyte.
  Framework said it expects to raise prices again b
  
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• Waymo Pays Workers $22 To Close Doors on Stranded Robotaxis

  25-12-2025 17:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  Waymo's fleet of autonomous robotaxis can navigate city streets and compete with human taxi drivers, but they become stranded when a passenger leaves a door ajar -- prompting the company to pay tow truck operators around $20 to $24 through an app called Honk just to push a door shut. The owner of a towing company in Inglewood, California, completes up to three such jobs a week for Waymo, sometimes freeing vehicles by removing seat belts caught in doors. Another Los Angeles tow operator said loca
  
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• Nvidia Buying Groq's Assets For $20 Billion in Its Largest Deal on Record

  25-12-2025 16:01 via slashdot.org
  Nvidia has agreed to buy assets from Groq, a designer of high-performance artificial intelligence accelerator chips, for $20 billion in cash, according to Alex Davis, CEO of Disruptive, which led the startup's latest financing round in September. From a report: Davis, whose firm has invested more than half a billion dollars in Groq since the company was founded in 2016, said the deal came together quickly.
  Groq raised $750 million at a valuation of about $6.9 billion three months ago. Investors
  
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• Trump Administration To Overhaul Lottery System For H-1B Visas

  25-12-2025 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  The Trump administration has announced it would replace the lottery programme used to grant H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers with a system that prioritises higher-paid individuals. From a report: The Department of Homeland Security said it would begin to implement a "weighted" selection process to give an advantage to higher-skilled and higher-paid applicants from February, according to a statement posted on its website. Matthew Tragesser, Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson,
  
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• Bitcoin Miners' Pivot To AI Has Lifted Bitcoin-Mining ETF By About 90% This Year

  25-12-2025 14:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: It's harder than ever to mine bitcoin. And less profitable, too. But mining-company stocks are still flying, even with cryptocurrency prices in retreat. That's because these firms have something in common with the hottest investment theme on the planet: the massive, electricity-hungry data centers expected to power the artificial-intelligence boom. Some companies are figuring out how to remake themselves as vital suppliers to Alph
  
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• Fake Video Claiming 'Coup In France' Goes Viral

  25-12-2025 11:00 via slashdot.org
  alternative_right shares a report from Euronews: France's President Emmanuel Macron discovered news of his own supposed overthrow, after he received a message of concern, along with a link to a Facebook video. "On Sunday (14 December) one of my African counterparts got in touch, writing 'Dear president, what's happening to you? I'm very worried,'" Macron told readers of French local newspaper La Provence on December 16.Alongside the message, a compelling video showcasing a swirling helicopter, m
  
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• NASA Will Soon Find Out If the Perseverance Rover Can Really Persevere On Mars

  25-12-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  With NASA's Mars Sample Return mission delayed into the 2030s, engineers are certifying the Perseverance rover to keep operating for many more years while it continues collecting and safeguarding Martian rock samples. Ars Technica reports: The good news is that the robot, about the size of a small SUV, is in excellent health, according to Steve Lee, Perseverance's deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "Perseverance is approaching five years of exploration on Mars," Le
  
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• Nuclear Developer Proposes Using Navy Reactors For Data Centers

  25-12-2025 04:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Post: A Texas power developer is proposing to repurpose nuclear reactors from Navy warships to power the United States grid as the Trump administration pushes to secure massive amounts of energy for the artificial intelligence boom. HGP Intelligent Energy LLC filed an application to the Energy Department to redirect two retired reactors to a data center project proposed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, according to a letter submitted to the agency's
  
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• 'Why I Quit Streaming And Got Back Into Cassettes'

  25-12-2025 02:25 via news.slashdot.org
  "In the age of Spotify and AI slop, tapes remind us what we're missing when we stop taking risks," writes author Janus Rose in an article for 404 Media. Here's an excerpt: There are lots of advantages to the cassette lifestyle. Unlike vinyl records, tapes are compact and super-portable, and unlike streaming, you never have to worry about a giant company suddenly taking them away from you. They can be easily duplicated, shared, and made into mixtapes using equipment you find in a junk shop. When
  
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• Apple To Allow Alternative App Stores For iOS Users In Brazil

  25-12-2025 01:45 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple will allow alternative iOS app stores and external payment systems in Brazil after settling an antitrust case with the country's competition authority, following a lawsuit brought by MercadoLibre back in 2022. Thurrott reports: Yesterday, Brazil's Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica (CADE) explained in its press release that it has approved a Term of Commitment to Cease (TCC) submitted by Apple. To settle the lawsuit, the iPhone maker has agreed to allow third-party iOS app stores
  
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• Apple's App Course Runs $20,000 a Student. Is It Really Worth It?

  25-12-2025 01:02 via developers.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Two years ago, Lizmary Fernandez took a detour from studying to be an immigration attorney to join a free Apple course for making iPhone apps. The Apple Developer Academy in Detroit launched as part of the company's $200 million response to the Black Lives Matter protests and aims to expand opportunities for people of color in the country's poorest big city. But Fernandez found the program's cost-of-living stipend lacking -- "A lot of us got on foo
  
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• The Phone-Based Retirement Is Here

  25-12-2025 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  Adult children across the United States are increasingly reporting that their aging parents have developed what looks remarkably like the smartphone addiction [non-paywalled source] typically associated with teenagers, a phenomenon The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel has dubbed "phone-based retirement." A 2019 Pew Research Center study found people 60 and older spend more than half their daily leisure time -- four hours and 16 minutes -- in front of screens. Nielsen reported this year that adults 65 a
  
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