TheRegister
You are likely to be eaten by the MIT license: Microsoft frees Zork source
Microsoft developer boss Scott Hanselman saved the company's Ignite shindig this week by unveiling the source code for Zork I-III, all available under the MIT license.…
Magician forgets password to his own hand after RFID chip implant
It's important to have your login in hand, literally. Zi Teng Wang, a UK magician who implanted an RFID chip in his appendage, has admitted losing access to it because he forgot the password.…
Russia-linked crooks bought a bank for Christmas to launder cyber loot
On Christmas Day 2024, a Russian-linked laundering network bought itself a very special present: a controlling stake in a Kyrgyzstan bank, later used to wash cybercrime profits and funnel money into Moscow's war machine, according to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).…
Lawsuit seeks to probe Uncle Sam's role in ICE-tracking app takedowns
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is suing two government departments to understand how they compelled tech companies to remove ICE-tracking apps and websites from their platforms.…
Nvidia's green500 dominance continues as France's Kairos super takes efficiency title
SC25 There's a new efficiency champ at the top of the Green500 ranking of the world's most sustainable supercomputers.…
AI nudification site fined £55K for skipping age checks
The UK's online regulator has lobbed a £50,000 fine at an AI nudification website for failing to implement mandatory age checks, potentially allowing under-18s to waltz past the virtual velvet rope.…
UK minister ducks cost questions on nationwide digital ID scheme
A UK tech minister has declined to put a figure on the cost of the government's digital ID plans as MPs question the contributions expected from central departments.…
Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'
Opinion In a tweet lamenting all the "cynics" unmoved by AI, Microsoft AI boss Mustafa Suleyman demonstrated that Redmond's Reality Distortion Field is running at full power.…
Boffins build 'AI Kill Switch' to thwart unwanted agents
Computer scientists based in South Korea have devised what they describe as an "AI Kill Switch" to prevent AI agents from carrying out malicious data scraping.…
Linux admin hated downtime so much he schlepped a live UPS during office move
On Call The working week can be burdensome, so each Friday morning The Register tries to lighten the load by bringing you a new instalment of On Call, the reader-contributed column in which you let go of tech support stories that weigh on your memory.…
Open Compute Project figuring out how to get quantum computers into classical datacenters
The Open Compute Project (OCP) has commenced a workstream to learn how to deploy quantum computers alongside classical high performance computers in the same datacenter.…
Google links Android’s Quick Share to Apple’s AirDrop, without Cupertino’s help
Google has linked Android’s wireless peer-to-peer file sharing tool Quick Share to Apple’s equivalent AirDrop.…
Veeam bets on more VMware alternatives, including Red Hat and China’s Sangfor
Backup software vendor Veeam has thrown its weight behind more alternatives to VMware.…
SEC drops SolarWinds lawsuit that painted a target on CISOs everywhere
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has abandoned the lawsuit it pursued against SolarWinds and its chief infosec officer for misleading investors about security practices that led to the 2020 SUNBURST attack.…
SC25 gets heavy with mega power and cooling solutions
SC25 Hydrogen-fueled gas turbines, backup generators, and air handlers probably aren't the kinds of equipment you'd expect on the show floor of a supercomputing conference. But your expectations would be wrong.…
Gemini tries to sniff out AI slop images while also making them easier to create
hands on Google Gemini users can now use the AI's app and website to figure out whether an image is AI-generated, though with some considerable limitations.…
PHP 8.5 lays down long-awaited pipe operator, adds new URI tools
PHP 8.5 landed on Thursday with a long-awaited pipe operator and a new standards-compliant URI parser, marking one of the scripting language's more substantial updates.…
Another Salesforce-linked data breach has ShinyHunters’ fingerprints all over it
Salesforce has disclosed another third-party breach in which criminals - likely ShinyHunters (again) - may have accessed its customers' data.…
LLM-generated malware is improving, but don't expect autonomous attacks tomorrow
LLMs are getting better at writing malware - but they're still not ready for prime time.…
Don't spill your guts to your chatbot friend - it'll hoover up that info for training
The US House of Representatives has heard that LLM builders can exploit users’ conversations for further training and commercial benefit with little oversight or concern for privacy risks.…