TheRegister
Congrats, cybercrims: You just fell into a honeypot
Resecurity offered its "congratulations" to the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters cybercrime crew for falling into its threat intel team's honeypot – resulting in a subpoena being issued for one of the data thieves. Meanwhile, the notorious extortionists have since removed their claims of gaining "full access" to the security shop's systems.…
Playing Koi: Palo Alto isn't saying if it will buy security start-up
Palo Alto Networks is on shopping spree. The company is reportedly considering a $400 million purchase of Israeli cybersecurity start up Koi, which raised $48 million in funding last year. …
Venezuela loses president, but gains empty Starlink internet offer
The US just invaded your country, kidnapped your president, and wants to take your oil. But good news, Venezuelans, Starlink claims you can get a month of free Internet, even though it doesn't say how that could work in a place where it doesn't offer service.…
Qualcomm is determined to cut a slice out of Intel's PC pie with latest Snapdragon chips
Qualcomm is trying to become a major player in the laptop processor space. Its Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips, along with a concerted effort to improve the Windows on Arm software ecosystem, have made it a credible alternative to Intel and AMD, although it's still stuck at below 1% market share. On Monday at CES in Las Vegas, the company showed the next step in this strategy: the next-gen Snapdragon X2 Plus chips, which are targeted at budget and mainstream systems.…
EU won't scrap tech regs just because Washington dislikes them
The EU has pledged to stand firm against US threats following fines levied against Amercian tech companies for breaching recently introduced digital laws.…
The last supported version of HP-UX is no more
The final version of HPE's own flavor of Unix, HP-UX 11i v3, is now out of support. It is the end of a line that started in 1982.…
Gmail preparing to drop POP3 mail fetching
Important news for Gmail power users: Google is dropping the feature whereby Gmail can collect mail from other email accounts over POP3.…
UK's long-delayed Emergency Services Network eyes satellites for help
Satellite phone services could play a part in Britain's troubled Emergency Services Network (ESN) project, including SpaceX's Starlink platform, to plug gaps in the coverage provided by terrestrial network tech.…
Capita tells civil servants to wait for chatbots to fix pension portal woes
Capita has told users of its ailing UK civil service pension portal to wait until new chatbots go live before contacting it again about problems.…
New Zealand orders review into ManageMyHealth cyberattack
New Zealand health minister Simeon Brown has ordered a review into the cyberattack at ManageMyHealth, which threatens the data of hundreds of thousands of Kiwis.…
Your smart TV is watching you and nobody's stopping it
Opinion At the end of last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five of the largest TV companies, accusing them of excessive and deceptive surveillance of their customers.…
Techie turned the tables on office bullies with remote access rumble
Who, Me? How on earth is it 2026 already? The Register will ponder that existential matter after first presenting a new instalment of “Who, Me?” – the reader-contributed column in which we share your stories of things you shouldn’t do at work, and how you escape them unscathed.…
Trump admin sends heart emoji to commercial spyware makers with lifted Predator sanctions
infosec in brief The Trump administration has cleared a trio of individuals sanctioned by the Biden administration for involvement with the Intellexa spyware consortium behind the Predator surveillance tool, removing restrictions that had barred them from doing business with the US.…
Palo Alto Networks security-intel boss calls AI agents 2026's biggest insider threat
interview AI agents represent the new insider threat to companies in 2026, according to Palo Alto Networks Chief Security Intel Officer Wendi Whitmore, and this poses several challenges to executives tasked with securing the expected surge in autonomous agents.…
Claude is his copilot: Rust veteran designs new Rue programming language with help from AI bot
Naming a new programming language "Rue" sounds like an acknowledgment of doubt about the project's prospects, if you take "Rue" to mean "regret."…
Users prompt Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot to remove clothes in photos then 'apologize' for it
Grok, the AI chatbot owned and operated by Elon Musk's xAI, is facing a firestorm of outrage after users prompted it to create images of naked and scantily clad people from real photographs, some of whom are underage.…
Headset hype meets harsh reality as Apple and Meta VR shipments fizzle in 2025
Apple’s pricey Vision Pro VR headset had a tough 2025.…
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadell becomes AI influencer, asks us all to move beyond slop
Microsoft CEO and head AI peddler Satya Nadella wants you to know that it's time for the next phase of AI acceptance, where we focus on how humans are empowered by tools and agents and how we deploy resources to support this growth.…
Bitfinex crypto thief who was serving five years thanks Trump for early release
Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges tied to the 2016 theft of about 120,000 bitcoins from the Bitfinex exchange and was sentenced to five years in prison, has been released after roughly 14 months in the slammer.…
Cybercrook claims to be selling infrastructure info about three major US utilities
A cybercrook claims to have breached Pickett and Associates, a Florida-based engineering firm whose clients include major US utilities, and is selling what they claim to be about 139 GB of engineering data about Tampa Electric Company, Duke Energy Florida, and American Electric Power. The price is 6.5 bitcoin, which amounts to about $585,000.…