Linux fréttir

A landmark decision by a top UN court has cleared the way for countries to sue each other over climate change, including over historic emissions of planet-warming gases. BBC: But the judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday said that untangling who caused which part of climate change could be difficult. The ruling is non-binding but legal experts say it could have wide-ranging consequences. It will be seen as a victory for countries that are very vulnerable to climate change, who came to court after feeling frustrated about lack of global progress in tackling the problem.

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US DOE among breached government agencies

More than 400 organizations have been compromised in the Microsoft SharePoint attack, according to Eye Security, which initially sounded the alarm on the mass exploitation last Friday, even before Redmond confirmed the critical vulnerabilities.…

Meta researchers published findings in Nature Wednesday detailing a wristband prototype that controls computers through hand gestures by reading electrical signals from forearm muscles. The device uses surface electromyography to detect signals from alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord that connect to muscle fibers, allowing users to move cursors with wrist turns, open applications with thumb-to-forefinger taps, and write text by tracing letters in the air. The technology, developed at Meta's Reality Labs, trained neural networks on data from 10,000 participants to identify common muscle signal patterns. The wristband works without individual calibration across most users and can detect intended movements before physical motion occurs. Meta demonstrated the device controlling its Orion augmented reality glasses last fall and plans product integration over the next few years.

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Loads of unexplained ones, too. Maybe normalize providing a freaking reason for multi-hour outages, mmm?

The previous quarter was a busy one for internet disruptions, according to Cloudflare, with government-mandated shutdowns in several nations, a massive power outage hitting Spain's infrastructure, damage to fiber optic cabling, and technical issues hitting North America.…

A cyber-espionage campaign exploiting unpatched Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities has breached approximately 400 organizations worldwide, including the US National Nuclear Security Administration, according to Netherlands-based cybersecurity firm Eye Security. The figure represents a four-fold increase from 100 organizations cataloged over the weekend, with researchers calling it likely an undercount since not all attack vectors leave detectable artifacts. Microsoft identified three Chinese groups -- state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, plus China-based Storm-2603 -- as exploiting the vulnerabilities in on-premises SharePoint servers to steal authentication credentials and execute malicious code remotely. The campaign began July 7 and was first detected July 18 when Eye Security found unusual activity on a customer's server. Victims include the US Energy Department, Education Department, Florida's Department of Revenue, Rhode Island General Assembly, and European and Middle Eastern governments.

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The 2026 tax year ought to be fun

A quarter of the Internal Revenue Service's IT staff has departed since President Trump's workforce reduction efforts began earlier this year, and that has officials worried the 2026 tax season could be a mess.…

Despite pledging help for those who don’t sign for subs, Broadcom says validating their entitlements will delay support

Exclusive Some customers of Broadcom’s VMware business currently cannot access security patches, putting them at greater risk of attack.…

Australia is offering visas to Tuvalu citizens each year under a climate migration deal Canberra has billed as "the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world." From a report: "We received extremely high levels of interest in the ballot with 8,750 registrations, which includes family members of primary registrants," the Australian high commission in Tuvalu said in a statement. The figure is equal to 82 percent of the country's 10,643 population, according to census figures collected in 2022. "With 280 visas offered this program year, it means that many will miss out," the commission said. One of the most climate-threatened corners of the planet, scientists fear Tuvalu will be uninhabitable within the next 80 years. Two of the archipelago's nine coral atolls have already largely disappeared under the waves.

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The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a 23-page "AI Action Plan" [PDF] designed to accelerate American AI development through deregulation and infrastructure expansion while countering Chinese influence in the technology sector. The plan, mandated by President Trump in January with a six-month deadline, establishes three core pillars: innovation acceleration, infrastructure development, and international AI diplomacy. Central provisions include removing federal regulations that hinder AI development and directing agencies to withhold AI-related funding from states with "burdensome" AI regulations. The administration will streamline environmental permitting for data centers and energy infrastructure while expanding use of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power to meet AI's electricity demands. The plan mandates that government-procured large language models be "neutral and unbiased," addressing conservative concerns about perceived liberal bias in AI systems. Trump signed accompanying executive orders requiring the US International Development Finance Corporation and Export-Import Bank to support global deployment of American AI technology. "To win the AI race, the U.S. must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships," Sacks stated, emphasizing worker protection and avoiding "Orwellian uses of AI." The initiative represents Trump's campaign promise to position America as the dominant global AI leader while dismantling Biden-era AI safety requirements rescinded on Trump's first day in office.

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Thingiverse ditches downloadable designs at the urging of Manhattan District Attorney, who wants more companies to do likewise

A leading 3D printing site has agreed to purge its library of downloadable gun designs at the urging of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. However, it's unlikely to slow the proliferation of 3D printed weapons, as many other sites offer downloadable gun designs and parts.…

Apple today announced AppleCare One, a insurance subscription service that covers multiple products under a single plan for $19.99 per month. The service protects up to three devices, with additional products costing $5.99 monthly each. AppleCare One provides identical coverage to AppleCare Plus, including battery protection, unlimited accidental damage repairs, and priority support. The service accepts products up to four years old, compared to AppleCare Plus's 60-day enrollment window, though Apple requires older devices to be in "good condition" and may conduct diagnostic testing. Headphones must be less than one year old for eligibility. Theft and Loss coverage comes standard for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. The service goes live tomorrow.

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Vendor sees 'slight deceleration' in cloud backlog as it offers mixed results

SAP is warning of uncertainty in global markets after reporting revenue of €9 billion ($10.55 billion) for caledar Q2, up 9 percent year-on-year.…

A record-breaking heat wave across Western Europe in June and July has triggered a political battle over air conditioning installation, with right-wing parties demanding widespread adoption while government officials warn of environmental consequences. More than 1,000 French schools closed partially or completely due to lack of air conditioning during the heat wave. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party proposed a major campaign to install air conditioning in schools, hospitals and other institutions. UK Conservatives urged London's Labour mayor to eliminate restrictions on air conditioning in new housing, while Spain's Vox party highlighted air-conditioning breakdowns to criticize establishment parties. French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher countered that large-scale air conditioning would heat streets with exhaust, worsening heat waves. Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating twice the global average since the 1980s. One study predicts air conditioning will increase Italy's annual power demand by 10% by 2050.

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Hand us the mind bleach, we want to flush our memories of attack

Clorox is suing its service desk provider, Cognizant, for $380 million in a California state court, alleging the IT support crew "enabled a cybercriminal to gain a foothold in Clorox's network" by handing over staffers' passwords to attackers after they simply requested them.…

Total Recall: Capturing everything you do on your PC screen to become a 'true companion'

Microsoft is again throwing AI at Windows 11 to see what sticks, releasing features including the even more eyebrow-raising successor to its controversial Recall, a screen-streaming remotely processed backseat driver dubbed Copilot Vision.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: During his latest trip to Washington, OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, painted a sweeping vision of an AI-dominated future in which entire job categories disappear, presidents follow ChatGPT's recommendations and hostile nations wield artificial intelligence as a weapon of mass destruction, all while positioning his company as the indispensable architect of humanity's technological destiny. Speaking at the Capital Framework for Large Banks conference at the Federal Reserve board of governors, Altman told the crowd that certain job categories would be completely eliminated by AI advancement. "Some areas, again, I think just like totally, totally gone," he said, singling out customer support roles. "That's a category where I just say, you know what, when you call customer support, you're on target and AI, and that's fine." The OpenAI founder described the transformation of customer service as already complete, telling the Federal Reserve vice-chair for supervision, Michelle Bowman: "Now you call one of these things and AI answers. It's like a super-smart, capable person. There's no phone tree, there's no transfers. It can do everything that any customer support agent at that company could do. It does not make mistakes. It's very quick. You call once, the thing just happens, it's done." The OpenAI founder then turned to healthcare, making the suggestion that AI's diagnostic capabilities had surpassed human doctors, but wouldn't go so far as to accept the superior performer as the sole purveyor of healthcare. "ChatGPT today, by the way, most of the time, can give you better -- it's like, a better diagnostician than most doctors in the world," he said. "Yet people still go to doctors, and I am not, like, maybe I'm a dinosaur here, but I really do not want to, like, entrust my medical fate to ChatGPT with no human doctor in the loop." [...] At the fireside chat, he said one of his biggest worries was over AI's rapidly advancing destructive capabilities, with one scenario that kept him up at night being a hostile nation using these weapons to attack the US financial system. And despite being in awe of advances in voice cloning, Altman warned the crowd about how that same benefit could enable sophisticated fraud and identity theft, considering that "there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication".

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Uncertainty continues to knock tech industry confidence

More tariff turmoil emerged this week as Nokia slashed its profit guidance for the year due to looming US levies on imported goods, while Texas Instruments' shares took a beating over fears that growth seen in Q2 will fall away following customer stockpiling to avoid import duties.…

But there are tweaks for everyone – even if some are less welcome than others

Mozilla has delivered the latest version of its web browser, alleviating a long-standing irritation for Linux users… but making its "AI" integration even more pervasive.…

Deal adds to a string of relationships based on improving data and analytics

NatWest Group has announced a five-year contract with AWS and Accenture intended to improve its analytics performance for customer data.…

The United Kingdom's government is planning to ban public sector and critical infrastructure organizations from paying ransoms after ransomware attacks. From a report: The list of entities that would have to follow the new proposed legislation includes local councils, schools, and the publicly funded National Health Service (NHS). "Ransomware is estimated to cost the UK economy millions of pounds each year, with recent high-profile ransomware attacks highlighting the severe operational, financial, and even life-threatening risks. The ban would target the business model that fuels cyber criminals' activities and makes the vital services the public rely on a less attractive target for ransomware groups," the UK government said. "We're determined to smash the cyber criminal business model and protect the services we all rely on as we deliver our Plan for Change. By working in partnership with industry to advance these measures, we are sending a clear signal that the UK is united in the fight against ransomware," Security Minister Dan Jarvis added.

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