TheRegister
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.…
Finnish cops grill crew of ship suspected of undersea cable sabotage
Finnish police have arrested and are interviewing two crew members from a class A cargo ship sailing from Russia after suspected cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea.…
Finally - a terminal solution to the browser wars
Old-time web users will fondly remember Lynx, a text-only browser that ran from the terminal. Now, there's a Sixel-compatible web browser that runs completely from the terminal, and has all the graphics and modern features you'd expect. …
Google snaps up datacenter power biz Intersect while xAI plans more capacity
The AI-fueled datacenter boom continues apace, with Google parent Alphabet moving to acquire energy and infrastructure biz Intersect, while Elon Musk's xAI is reportedly planning to expand beyond its already huge complex in Tennessee.…
Brit lands invite-only Aussie visa after uncovering vuln in government systems
A British security researcher has secured Australia's strictest, invite-only visa after discovering a critical vulnerability in a government system.…
Starlink to lower orbits of thousands of satellites over safety concerns
Starlink is to lower the orbits of about half its satellite constellation over the course of this year, citing safety concerns.…
LockBit takedown architect gets New Year award from King Charles
A senior British crimefighter has been awarded one of the country's highest tributes for public service for his role in the 2024 LockBit ransomware takedown.…