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Plus: Aussie Wi-Fi phisher and Brit dark web dealer nailed

Cybercrime suspects and offenders across three continents have been rounded up this week, with cases spanning hacked IP cameras in South Korea, evil twin Wi-Fi traps in Australia, and a dark web drug empire in rural England.…

Major consulting firms including McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Bain have frozen starting salaries for the third consecutive year as AI reshapes how these companies think about their traditional reliance on large cohorts of junior analysts. Job offers for 2026 show undergraduate packages holding steady at $135,000-$140,000 and MBA packages at $270,000-$285,000, according to Management Consulted. The Big Four -- Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC -- haven't raised starting pay since 2022. The industry's classic "pyramid" structure, built on thousands of entry-level employees who crunch data and assemble PowerPoint decks, faces pressure as AI automates much of that work. Two senior executives at Big Four firms estimated that UK graduate recruitment would fall by about half in the coming year. PwC has already cut graduate hiring in 2025 and said in October it would miss a target to add 100,000 employees globally by 2026 -- a goal set five years ago before generative AI's rollout.

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The British government said it opposes attempts to cool the planet by spraying millions of tons of dust into the atmosphere -- but did not close the door to a debate on regulating the technology. From a report: The comments in parliament Thursday came after a POLITICO investigation revealed an Israeli-U.S. company Stardust Solutions aimed to be capable of deploying solar radiation modification, as the technology is called, inside this decade. "We're not in favor of solar radiation modification given the uncertainty around the potential risks it poses to the climate and environment," Leader of the House of Commons Alan Campbell said on behalf of the government.

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Move follows Bank of America's $4B new tech war chest

Global bank HSBC and Mistral AI have announced a deal they say will spread the use of generative AI across the financial institution, saving employees time and improving processes.…

Blackwell GPUs, Juniper integration, and a planned France lab aim to speed enterprise rollouts

HPE is upgrading its Private Cloud AI stack with Nvidia technology and preparing a France-based AI Factory Lab where customers will be able to test out workloads.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: India's telecoms ministry has privately asked all smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cyber security app, a government order showed, a move set to spark a tussle with Apple, which typically dislikes such directives. [...] The November 28 order, seen by Reuters, gives major smartphone companies 90 days to ensure that the government's Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on new mobile phones, with a provision that users cannot disable it. [...] In the order, the government said the app was essential to combat "serious endangerment" of telecom cyber security from duplicate or spoofed IMEI numbers, which enable scams and network misuse.

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Stop AI bloat, fix the operating system, implores veteran software developer Dave Plummer

The Windows operating system is buckling under AI features that seem designed more for shareholders than users, and retired Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer says it's time to hit pause.…

Airbus said Monday that the vast majority of around 6,000 A320-family jets affected by an emergency software recall have now been modified, leaving fewer than 100 aircraft still requiring work after a frantic weekend of repairs prompted by the discovery of a vulnerability to solar flares. The unprecedented recall -- described as the broadest emergency action in the company's history -- came after a mid-air incident on a JetBlue A320 revealed a possible link between a drop in altitude and a space-related computer bug. The fix involved reverting to an earlier version of software that controls nose angle, uploaded via cable from a portable device called a data loader. Some older A320 jets will need entirely new computers rather than a simple software reset, raising questions about how long those aircraft will remain grounded amid global chip shortages. Reuters separately reported on Monday that Airbus had discovered an industrial quality issue affecting metal panels of a "limited" number of A320-family aircraft. The company told the publication that it had "identified" and "contained" the source of the issue and that "all newly produced panels conform to all requirements."

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Only a select few continue into later life, mainly for the love of the game

Young threat actors may be rebels without a cause. These cybercriminals typically grow out of their offending ways by the time they turn 20, according to data published by the Dutch government.…

China's central bank has flagged stablecoins as a specific concern in its latest push against virtual currencies, warning that the tokens fail to meet requirements for customer identification and anti-money-laundering controls and risk being used for fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized cross-border fund transfers. The People's Bank of China released a statement Saturday following a Friday meeting on virtual currency regulation, saying crypto speculation has recently increased due to various factors and now presents new challenges for risk control. Virtual currencies do not hold the same legal status as fiat currency and cannot be used as legal tender, the bank said, adding that all virtual currency-related business activities are "illegal financial activities." China banned cryptocurrency trading in 2021. The bank said it will intensify efforts to combat illegal financial activities to maintain economic and financial stability. In October, PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng said the central bank would closely track and evaluate the development of overseas stablecoins.

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After reassuring regulators all was well, pair debut interconnect to smooth the bumps

Re:invent AWS and Google Cloud are promoting a jointly developed multi-cloud connectivity service, despite recently assuring competition authorities that no technical barriers existed for customers wanting to operate across multiple clouds.…

Pat Gelsinger, the former Intel CEO who was pushed out in late 2024 during a five-year turnaround effort, told the Financial Times that the "decay" he found when he returned to the company in 2021 was "deeper and harder than I'd realized." In the five years before his return, "not a single product was delivered on schedule," he said. "Basic disciplines" had been lost. "It's like, wow, we don't know how to engineer anymore!" Gelsinger was also unsparing about the Biden administration's implementation of the 2022 Chips Act, legislation he spent more time lobbying for than any other CEO. "Two and a half years later [and] no money is dispensed? I thought it was hideous!" There's what Gelsinger carefully calls "a touch of irony" in how things played out. Intel's board forced him out four years into a five-year plan, then picked successor Lip-Bu Tan -- who Gelsinger says is following the same broad strategy. Tan has kept Intel in the manufacturing game and delivered the 18A process node within the five years Gelsinger originally promised. Asked what went wrong, Gelsinger conceded he was "very focused on managing 'down'" and should have managed "up" more. He also would have pushed harder for more semiconductor expertise on the board, he said.

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Coupang confirms internationally routed intrusion compromised more than half of the country's population

South Korean retail behemoth Coupang has admitted to a data breach that exposed the personal details of 33.7 million customers, turning the company's famed "Rocket Delivery" logistics empire into an express shipment for personal information.…

Overbudget Project Future will continue to cause problems into Q2 next year, chairman admits

Asda's delayed tech divorce from Walmart, which involved a complete SAP ERP upgrade, has caused "severe disruption" hitting the UK retailer's quarterly revenue.…

Budget model slips in at $45 while other boards climb amid AI-driven component crunch

Raspberry Pi has raised prices across much of its latest lineup while launching a new $45 Raspberry Pi 5 with 1GB of RAM, it's first sub-$50 model in the series.…

Two former U.S. congressmen announced this week that they're launching two tax-exempt fundraising groups "to back candidates who support AI safeguards," reports The Hill, "as a counterweight to industry-backed groups." Former Representatives Chris Stewart (Republican-Utah) and Brad Carson (Democrat-Oklahoma) plan to create separate Republican and Democratic super PACs and raise $50 million to elect candidates "committed to defending the public interest against those who aim to buy their way out of sensible AI regulation," according to a press release... The pair is also launching a nonprofit called Public First to advocate for AI policy. Carson underscored that polling "shows significant public concern about AI and overwhelming voter support for guardrails that protect people from harm and mitigate major risks." Their efforts are meant to counter "anti-safeguard super PACs" that they argue are attempting to "kill commonsense guardrails around AI," the press release noted... The super PAC is reportedly targeting a Democratic congressional candidate, New York state Assemblymember Alex Bores, who co-sponsored AI legislation in the Albany statehouse. "This isn't a partisan issue — it's about whether we'll have meaningful oversight of the most powerful technology ever created," Chris Stewart says in their press release. "We've seen what happens when government fails to act on other emerging technologies. With AI, the stakes are enormous, and we can't afford to make the same missteps."

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Zut alors! Cybercrooks scored names, numbers, and license IDs

The French Football Federation (FFF) has conceded that attackers broke into its member management software using a compromised account, scoring a match sheet's worth of player data in the process.…

Authority follows Birmingham and West Sussex, which both suffered disastrous transitions

Southwest England's Dorset Council is preparing to swap its legacy SAP ERP for an Oracle-built replacement in a project set to cost £14.2 million over three years.…

Rubber-key revival leans on Linux, emulation, and third-party ROMs

The Spectrum is an inexpensive home entertainment gadget from Retro Games Ltd (RGL) that's hauntingly similar to a totally unrelated 1980s home entertainment device that was loved by millions.…

Openreach pushes for legal overhaul as apartments fall through fiber rollout gaps

Brits living in blocks of flats or apartments risk missing out on high-speed fiber broadband due to quirks in domestic regulations that can hinder access for telco engineers.…