ICT news

• FBI Working Towards Nabbing Scattered Spider Hackers, Official Says

  10-05-2024 17:23 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. FBI is working towards charging hackers from the aggressive Scattered Spider criminal gang who are largely based in the U.S. and western countries and have breached dozens of American organisations, a senior official said. From a report: The young hackers grabbed headlines last year when they broke into the systems of casino-operators MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment locking up the companies' systems and demanding hefty ransom payments. From health and telecom compani
  
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• The Raspberry Pi 5 Gets an AI Upgrade

  05-06-2024 02:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Today, Raspberry Pi introduced a new kit that adds AI functionality to the Raspberry Pi 5. ZDNet reports: The Raspberry Pi AI kit combines an M.2-format Hailo 8L AI accelerator with the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ to create a powerful yet power-efficient solution. The Hailo-8L NPU (Neural Processing Unit) chip, capable of 13 trillion operations per second (TOPS), is built into an M.2 2242 form factor module that attaches to the M.2 HAT+. When connected to a Raspberry Pi 5 board running the latest Rasp
  
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• A New Google Maps Layer Shows Public Restrooms In NYC

  05-06-2024 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Google Maps has introduced a new layer to help individuals find public restrooms in New York City. The Verge reports: As part of a new program called "Ur in Luck," the city has introduced a Maps view dotted with 1,000 public restrooms across the five boroughs. Users can view the map on their phones and locate the closest restroom that's accessible to the public. "Everyone -- seniors, parents with kids, anyone enjoying the day outdoors, needs access to a public bathroom without having to buy anyt
  
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• Nintendo Hits 127 Switch Piracy Tutorial Repos After 'Cracking' URL Encryption

  05-06-2024 00:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A popular GitHub repo and over 120 forks containing Switch emulation tutorials have been targeted by Nintendo. While most forks are now disabled, the main repository has managed to survive after being given the opportunity to put things right. Whether Nintendo appreciated the irony is unclear, but it appears that use of encoding as a protection measure to obfuscate links, was no match for the video game company's circumvention skills. [...]
  
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• Apollo To Provide $11 Billion To Intel For Ireland Facility

  05-06-2024 00:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Apollo Global announced today that it will acquire a 49% equity interest in Intel's manufacturing facility in Ireland for $11 billion, in a deal expected to close in the second quarter. The deal "would allow Intel to redeploy parts of its investment in the project to other parts of its business," reports Reuters. "Intel has invested $18.4 billion in the facility till date." From the report: Apollo will acquire the stake in the Fab 34 facility in Leixlip, Ireland, the U.S. chipmaker's first high-
  
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• Google Contractor Used Admin Access To Leak Info From Private Nintendo YouTube Video

  04-06-2024 23:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A Google contractor used admin privileges to access private information from Nintendo's YouTube account about an upcoming Yoshi game in 2017, which later made its way to Reddit before Nintendo announced the game, according to a copy of an internal Google database detailing potential privacy and security incidents obtained by 404 Media. From the report: The news provides more clarity on how exactly a Redditor, who teased news of the new Yoshi game, which was later released as Yoshi's Crafted Worl
  
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• Online Streaming Services In Canada Must Hand Over 5% of Domestic Revenues

  04-06-2024 22:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC News: Online streaming services operating in Canada will be required to contribute five percent of their Canadian revenues to support the domestic broadcasting system, the country's telecoms regulator said on Tuesday. The money will be used to boost funding for local and Indigenous broadcasting, officials from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said in a briefing. "Today's decision will help ensure that online strea
  
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• ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity All Went Down At the Same Time

  04-06-2024 22:27 via slashdot.org
  
  Sarah Perez reports via TechCrunch: After a multi-hour outage that took place in the early hours of the morning, OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot went down again -- but this time, it wasn't the only AI provider affected. On Tuesday morning, both Anthropic's Claude and Perplexity began seeing issues, too, but these were more quickly resolved. Google's Gemini appears to be operating at present, though it may have also briefly gone offline, according to some user reports.It's unusual for three major AI pro
  
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• Ex-Google CEO Funds AI Research at Europe's Top Physics Hub CERN

  04-06-2024 22:05 via slashdot.org
  
  A donation by former Google chief Eric Schmidt to Europe's top particle physics lab heralds a new way to fund frontier research just as the West's technological race with China quickens. From a report: The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, will use the previously unreported gift of $48 million [non-paywalled link] from the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation to develop AI algorithms to analyze raw data from the lab's Large Hadron Collider, the world's most p
  
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• FCC Sued by Broadband Industry Groups Over Net Neutrality Rules

  04-06-2024 21:29 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Several broadband industry lobby groups have filed lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in an attempt to overturn the recently approved net neutrality rules. The regulations, which prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, are scheduled to take effect on July 22. The lawsuits were filed in various US appeals courts by groups representing cable, telecom, and mobile Internet service providers, including NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, USTelecom
  
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• Services Disrupted as London Hospitals Hit By Cyber-attack

  04-06-2024 20:45 via it.slashdot.org
  
  jd writes: There aren't many details yet, but a private company used by the National Health Service in London was hit by a ransomware attack today, leading to cancelled operations and cancelled tests. The provider has been hit multiple times this year and is obviously not bothering with making any improvements in cybersecurity. There really should be legal requirements when it comes to maintaining what is de-facto critical infrastructure.
  From the article: "Major NHS hospitals in London have bee
  
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• Intel CEO Takes Aim at Nvidia in Fight for AI Chip Dominance

  04-06-2024 20:05 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger took the stage at the Computex show in Taiwan to talk about new products he expects will help turn back the tide of share losses to peers, including AI leader Nvidia. From a report: Intel showed its new Xeon 6 data center processors with more efficient cores that will allow operators to cut down the space required for a given task to a third of prior-generation hardware. Like rivals, from Advanced Micro Devices to Qualcomm, Intel touted benchmarks that
  
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• The Chinese Internet Is Shrinking

  04-06-2024 19:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese people know their country's internet is different. There is no Google, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. They use euphemisms online to communicate the things they are not supposed to mention. When their posts and accounts are censored, they accept it with resignation. They live in a parallel online universe. They know it and even joke about it. Now they are discovering that, beneath a facade bustling with short videos, livestreaming and e-commerce, their
  
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• OpenAI Employees Want Protections To Speak Out on 'Serious Risks' of AI

  04-06-2024 18:47 via slashdot.org
  
  A group of current and former employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind are calling for protection from retaliation for sharing concerns about the "serious risks" of the technologies these and other companies are building. From a report: "So long as there is no effective government oversight of these corporations, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable to the public," according to a public letter, which was signed by 13 people who've worked at the com
  
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• World Will Miss Target of Tripling Renewable Electricity Generation By 2030, IEA Says

  04-06-2024 18:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  AmiMoJo shares a report: The world is off track to meet the goal of tripling renewable electricity generation by 2030, a target viewed as vital to enable a swift global transition away from fossil fuels, but there are promising signs that the pace of progress may be picking up.
  Countries agreed last December on a tripling of renewable power by the end of this decade. But few have yet taken concrete steps to meet this requirement and on current policies and trends global renewable generation capa
  
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• More Than Half of US Adults Will Have Cardiovascular Disease By 2050, Research Finds

  04-06-2024 17:22 via science.slashdot.org
  
  By 2050, 61% of U.S. adults will have cardiovascular disease, driven mainly by high blood pressure, according to new American Heart Association research. High blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other dangerous cardiovascular problems. The findings also point to ongoing challenges with arrhythmias, heart failure, and congenital heart disease. CNN: In the research published Tuesday, the association predicts that 45 million adults will have some form of c
  
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• Snowflake Says There's No Evidence Attackers Breached Its Platform To Hack Ticketmaster

  04-06-2024 16:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A Ticketmaster data breach that allegedly includes details for 560 million accounts and another one affecting Santander have been linked to their accounts at Snowflake, a cloud storage provider. However, Snowflake says there's no evidence its platform is at fault. A joint statement to that effect made last night with CrowdStrike and Mandiant, two third-party security companies investigating the incident, lends additional credibility to the claim.
  Also, an ear
  
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• Palmer Luckey Unveils ModRetro Chromatic Handheld Console

  04-06-2024 16:01 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and Anduril, has launched the ModRetro Chromatic, a retro gaming handheld that plays original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. The device boasts a magnesium alloy case, sapphire crystal screen, and a pixel-perfect IPS display. It comes bundled with a licensed copy of Tetris and supports Link Cable multiplayer. Luckey suggested that the Chromatic is the most authentic way to play Game Boy games, with custom components designed to provide the ultimate gam
  
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• Qualcomm Spoofs 'I'm a Mac' Ads To Promote Windows On ARM PCs

  04-06-2024 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCMag: Justin Long, the actor known for playing the Mac guy in Apple's mid-2000s ad campaign is once again switching sides -- this time to promote new Windows laptops from Qualcomm. Long appeared in a video that Qualcomm showed during its Computex keynote. To introduce the segment, CEO Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm captured video of a "very special person" preordering a Windows Copilot+ laptop built with a Snapdragon X Elite chip.In the clip, we see Long t
  
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• Sony's PSVR 2 PC Adapter Launches In August

  04-06-2024 12:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The PlayStation VR2's PC adapter is arriving on August 7th, allowing PC support for the PS5-exclusive headset. It'll cost $59.99. The Verge reports: Sony says the device will support all Steam VR games, including big-name titles like Half-Life: Alyx. In addition to the new adapter, Sony says players will need a DisplayPort cable to work with Steam titles on PC. (As well as a Steam account, obviously.) You can check out the minimum system requirements right here.In a blog post, Sony explains that
  
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• Woman Who Received Pig Kidney Transplant Has It Removed

  04-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Due to complications with a mechanical heart pump, surgeons in New York removed a pig kidney from Lisa Pisano less than two months after transplanting it. The genetically engineered pig kidney did not show signs of rejection but suffered from inadequate blood flow. Wired reports: Pisano was facing heart and kidney failure and required routine dialysis. She wasn't eligible to receive a traditional heart and kidney transplant from a human donor because of several chronic medical conditions that re
  
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• Crooks Threaten To Leak 3 Billion Personal Records 'Stolen From Background Firm'

  04-06-2024 05:30 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Billions of records detailing people's personal information may soon be dumped online after being allegedly obtained from a Florida firm that handles background checks and other requests for folks' private info. A criminal gang that goes by the handle USDoD put the database up for sale for $3.5 million on an underworld forum in April, and rather incredibly claimed the trove included 2.9 billion records on all US, Canadian, and British citize
  
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• AMD Blows Up Its Laptop CPU Numbering System

  04-06-2024 01:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  AMD is reverting to a simpler, more traditional numbering scheme for its laptop processors, abandoning its recent complex "decoder ring" system. The new system for Ryzen AI laptop processors will use a three-digit model number to denote generation and SKU, aligning more closely with industry norms. Ars Technica reports: For its new Ryzen AI laptop processors, codenamed "Strix Point," AMD is still using the same broad Ryzen 3/5/7/9 number to communicate general performance level plus a one- or tw
  
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• New York Set to Restrict Social-Media Algorithms for Teens

  04-06-2024 01:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Lawmakers in New York have reached a tentative agreement to "prohibit social-media companies from using algorithms to steer content to children without parental consent (source paywalled; alternative source)," according to the Wall Street Journal. "The legislation is aimed at preventing social-media companies from serving automated feeds to minors. The bill, which is still being completed but expected to be voted on this week, also would prohibit platforms from sending minors notifications durin
  
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• Adobe Scolded For Selling 'Ansel Adams-Style' Images Generated By AI

  04-06-2024 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  The Ansel Adams estate said it was "officially on our last nerve" after Adobe was caught selling AI-generated images imitating the late photographer's work. The Verge reports: While Adobe permits AI-generated images to be hosted and sold on its stock image platform, users are required to hold the appropriate rights or ownership over the content they upload. Adobe Stock's Contributor Terms specifically prohibits content "created using prompts containing other artist names, or created using prompt
  
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• Google Can Keep Your Phone If You Send It In For Repair With Non-OEM Parts

  03-06-2024 23:40 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Authority: Like many other phone makers, Google has a self-repair program for servicing your damaged or malfunctioning Pixel device. As its support site explains, there are options to get repair tools, manuals, and certified parts so you can fix up your Pixel like new. Owners can also choose to simply send their device in to have it repaired professionally. As replacement parts can be expensive, some DIYers choose to use parts from third-party sup
  
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• Napster Sparked a File-Sharing Revolution 25 Years Ago

  03-06-2024 23:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  TorrentFreak's Ernesto Van der Sar recalls the rise and fall of Napster, the file-sharing empire that kickstarted a global piracy frenzy 25 years ago. Here's an excerpt from his report: At the end of the nineties, technology and the Internet were a playground for young engineers and 'hackers'. Some of them regularly gathered in the w00w00 IRC chatroom on the EFnet network. This tech-think-tank had many notable members, including WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Shawn Fanning, who logged on with the
  
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• E-Trade Considers Kicking Meme-Stock Leader Keith Gill Off Platform

  03-06-2024 22:13 via news.slashdot.org
  
  After growing concerned about potential stock manipulation, E*Trade is "considering telling meme-stock leader Keith Gill he can no longer use its platform," reports the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Gill, known online as "Roaring Kitty," gained notoriety for his role in the 2020 meme stock frenzy, where he encouraged amateur investors to buy GameStop shares, significantly driving up the stock price and challenging hedge funds. Just hours ago, Roaring Kitty announce
  
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• Toyota Apologizes For Cheating On Vehicle Testing, Halts Production of 3 Models

  03-06-2024 21:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda apologized Monday for massive cheating on certification tests for seven vehicle models as the automaker suspended production of three of them. The wide-ranging fraudulent testing at Japan's top automaker involved the use of inadequate or outdated data in collision tests, and incorrect testing of airbag inflation and rear-seat damage in crashes. Engine power tests were also found to have been falsified.Toyo
  
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• Samsung Sues Oura Preemptively To Block Smart Ring Patent Claims

  03-06-2024 20:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Samsung isn't waiting around for Oura to file any patent claims over its forthcoming smart ring. Instead, it's preemptively filed its own suit against Oura, seeking a "declaratory judgment" that states the Galaxy Ring doesn't infringe on five Oura patents. The suit alleges that Oura has a pattern of filing patent suits against competitors based on "features common to virtually all smart rings." In particular, the suit references sensors, electronics, batterie
  
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