TheRegister
Everything you know about last week's AWS outage is wrong
Column AWS put out a hefty analysis of its October 20 outage, and it's apparently written in a continuing stream of consciousness before the Red Bull wore off and the author passed out after 36 straight hours of writing.…
Machine learning saves £4.4M in UK.gov work and pensions fraud detection
The UK government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has saved £4.4 million over three years by using machine learning to tackle fraud, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). However, the public spending watchdog found the department's ability to expand this work is limited by fragmented IT systems and poor cross-government data standards.…
The Chinese Box and Turing Test: Is AI really intelligent?
Opinion Remember ELIZA? The 1966 chatbot from MIT's AI Lab convinced countless people it was intelligent using nothing but simple pattern matching and canned responses. Nearly 60 years later, ChatGPT has people making the same mistake. Chatbots don't think – they've just gotten exponentially better at pretending.…
The perfect AWS storm has blown over, but the climate is only getting worse
Opinion When your cabbie asks you what you do for a living, and you answer "tech journalist," you never get asked about cloud infrastructure in return. Bitcoin, mobile phones, AI, yes. Until last week: "What's this AWS thing, then?" You already knew a lot of people were having a very bad day in Bezosville, but if the news had reached an Edinburgh black cab driver, new adjectives were needed.…
Frustrated consultant 'went full Hulk' and started smashing hardware
Who, Me? Welcome to Monday morning and another installment of Who, Me? For the uninitiated, it's The Register's weekly reader-contributed column that tells tales of your greatest misses, and how you rebuilt a career afterward.…
Automattic accuses rival WordPress outfit WP Engine of ‘false advertising, and deceptive business practices’
The long battle between Automattic and WP Engine has flared again, this time with accusations the latter company issued “false advertising”, and employed “deceptive business practices.”…
UN Cybercrime Treaty wins dozens of signatories, to go with its many critics
The United Nations on Saturday staged a signing ceremony for the Convention against Cybercrime, the world’s first agreement to combat online crime. And while 72 nations picked up the pen, critics continue to point out the convention’s flaws.…
Australia sues Microsoft for misleading Microsoft 365 users about Copilot subscription options
Asia In Brief Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission on Monday commenced legal proceedings against Microsoft for allegedly misleading users of its Microsoft 365 bundle.…
Shaq's new ride gets jaq'ed in haq attaq
Infosec In Brief Former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal is 7'1" (215 cm), and therefore uses car customization companies to modify vehicles to fit his frame. But it appears cybercriminals have targeted Shaq’s preferred motor-modder.…
MPs urge government to stop Britain's phone theft wave through tech
The UK's Home Secretary should use her powers to push the tech industry to deploy stronger technical measures against the surge in phone thefts, according to a House of Commons committee.…
Berkeley boffins build better load balancing algo with AI
Computer scientists at UC Berkeley say that AI models show promise as a way to discover and optimize algorithms.…
Everybody's warning about critical Windows Server WSUS bug exploits ... but Microsoft's mum
Governments and private security sleuths warned that attackers are already exploiting a critical bug in Microsoft Windows Server Update Services, shortly after Redmond pushed an emergency patch for the remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability.…
High-stakes poker scam used rigged card shufflers, X-ray tables, and special glasses
The feds on Thursday charged alleged mafia associates and current and former National Basketball Association players and coaches with running rigged poker games and illegal sports betting.…
Sneaky Mermaid attack in Microsoft 365 Copilot steals data
Microsoft fixed a security hole in Microsoft 365 Copilot that allowed attackers to trick the AI assistant into stealing sensitive tenant data – like emails – via indirect prompt injection attacks.…
Sora makes slurfect deepfakes of celebs spewing racial epithets
Guardrails? What guardrails? Naughty netizens found a way to trick the Sora 2 video generator into producing deepfakes of public figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and billionaire Mark Cuban, that make it sound as though they're spewing racial slurs. The trick works despite Sora's built-in filters meant to block hateful language.…
Uncle Sam's new power plan will plug AI farms into the grid faster
The US Energy Secretary wants to see datacenters connected to the grid faster, and has directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement new rules that speed the process.…
OpenAI goes after Microsoft 365 Copilot's lunch with 'company knowledge' feature
OpenAI is chalenging Microsoft 365 Copilot with "company knowledge," a new ChatGPT feature that connects to organizational data to generate business-specific answers.…
Apple faces £1.5B payout after losing UK App Store case
Apple could face claims estimated at around £1.5 billion after it lost a collective case in the UK arguing that its closed systems for apps resulted in overcharging businesses and consumers.…
AI investment is the only thing keeping the US out of recession
AI spending is keeping the US economy out of recession, with datacenter infrastructure and model development providing the only significant growth amid trade turmoil, tariff shocks, and high borrowing costs.…
Microsoft drops surprise Windows Server patch before weekend downtime
Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to patch a critical vulnerability in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).…