TheRegister

Committee says Apple, Google, and Samsung could render stolen handsets worthless if compelled to act 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.…

One way AI can improve on human work Computer scientists at UC Berkeley say that AI models show promise as a way to discover and optimize algorithms.…

Critical 9.8-rated vulnerability affects Windows Server 2012 - 2025 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.…

31 alleged poker schemers nabbed alongside arrest of separate sports betting ring 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.…

Redmond says it's fixed this particular indirect prompt injection vuln updated 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.…

If you listen closely, you’ll realize Sam Altman and the others are only saying sound-alike words 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. ...

Proposal would fast-track hookups for the megawatt-hungry datacenters driving US electricity demand 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.…

ChatGPT can now rummage through corporate files via connectors, though Redmond still has the deeper hooks OpenAI is chalenging Microsoft 365 Copilot with 'company knowledge,' a new ChatGPT feature that connects to organizational data to generate business-specific answers.…

iPhone maker overcharged devs and users, says competition court 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.…

Datacenter infrastructure and model development spending offset high borrowing costs 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.…

You didn't have plans, did you? Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to patch a critical vulnerability in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).…

Failure at primary datacenter leaves planes parked and passengers angry, second incident since July Updated Timing is everything – except when it isn't. US carrier Alaska Airlines has grounded its fleet once again due to a mystery IT issue.…

Starmer rebrands unpopular scheme as convenience tool after backlash UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has relaunched his digital ID scheme as something that will make people's lives easier, less than four weeks after announcing it as a measure to tackle illegal working.…

11 years of filing feedback and all we got was a bloody... not even a T-shirt? Microsoft is celebrating 11 years of the Windows Insider Program with custom desktops and maybe a secret hint for users wondering which operating system to consider.…

Google Gemini worst offender with 76% error rate Four of the most popular AI chatbots routinely serve up inaccurate or misleading news content to users, according to a wide-reaching investigation.…

Request For Ideas: How would you move a retired orbiter across the US? The White House's Office of Management and Budget is grappling with how to transport Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian Museum in Virginia to Space Center Houston. How would you do it?…

Runways? Where we're going, we don't need runways US defense technology biz Shield AI claims it can build a jet-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) autonomous fighter drone that doesn't need a runway to operate.…

OpenAI sweetens the deal with data residency OpenAI has signed up the UK's Ministry of Justice as the latest public sector customer for ChatGPT Enterprise.…

Techie summoned at 02:00 AM to sort things out sent another 2 billion trying to fix it On Call Welcome to another instalment of On Call, The Register's weekly wander through your tales of tech support.…

Group-IB says Tehran-linked crew used hijacked mailbox and VPN to sling phishing emails across Middle East Iran's favorite muddy-footed cyberespionage crew is at it again, this time breaching more than 100 government entities across the Middle East and North Africa, according to researchers at Group-IB.…

Mystery customer wants an upgrade that will take some time Supermicro has revised its revenue forecast downwards by a couple of billion dollars, but insisted it’s nothing to worry about.…

Chipzilla returns to profit and suggests customers are primed to sign for foundry services once it nails 18A process Intel has returned to profitability, grown revenue, and suggested demand for AI will ensure its struggling foundry business wins customers and boosts its datacenter CPU business.…

The 0-days have left the building Federal prosecutors have charged a former general manager of US government defense contractor L3Harris's cyber arm Trenchant with selling secrets to an unidentified Russian buyer for $1.3 million.…

The new Microsoft assistant is a blob named Mico, but you can turn it into everyone’s favorite paper clip. Hands On Microsoft’s Clippy was an anthropomorphic assistant ahead of his time, offering to help you with your Office 97 tasks when all you could do was type and click in response. ...

But AWS is still the AI upstart's primary partner Google and Anthropic have struck a deal that will see the AI upstart gain access to up to a million of the web giant’s tensor processing units (TPUs) and involve “tens of billions of dollars.”…

It's not a bug, it's a feature Large language models, or LLMs, are biased in one way or another - often many. And there may be no way around that.…

What?! No complimentary credit monitoring? The Canadian outpost of retailer Toys R Us on Thursday notified customers that attackers accessed a database, stole some of their personal information, then posted the data online.…

iPhone and iPad users vexed by denial of spreadsheets Microsoft Excel for the past week has been hanging or crashing on iOS and iPadOS devices, to customers' great annoyance.…

Social engineering? Check. Trojanized open source? Check. Lazarus’ pet RAT? Also check North Korea's Lazarus Group has successfully compromised Europe's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector with its Operation DreamJob campaign, which promises job seekers lucrative employment opportunities - but then delivers a malware-laced offer and a compromised computer.…

Airbus, Leonardo and Thales seek to 'strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in space' Three European aerospace giants plan to combine their space units into a single heavyweight, hoping to boost the continent's space autonomy.…

Plus: Model 3/Y recall over battery-pack contactors that can cut drive power Feeling a bit blinded by the light when a Cybertruck rolls by? It's not just you — Tesla's recalling most built to date because the boxy pickup's front parking lights are too bright.…

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission says years of progress are being undone amid current administration's cuts America's once-ambitious cyber defences are starting to rust, according to the latest annual report from the US Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC), which warns that policy momentum has slowed and even slipped backwards thanks to Trump-era workforce and budget cuts.…

When is an issue not an issue? When it's intentional Microsoft accidentally broke several things in the October 2025 Windows Update, but smart card authentication was not one of them. That was intentionally broken, and the temporary workaround requires a registry hack.…

Weak demand for iPhone Air and delays to a costly foldable tablet suggest Cupertino's hardware experiments are struggling Apple's run of hardware experiments appears to be hitting some turbulence: The company's ultra-thin iPhone Air has reportedly failed to catch on with buyers, while its long-awaited foldable iPad is slipping further down the calendar amid engineering snags and soaring costs.…

Intense discussion approves AI – but subject to full responsibility and disclosure The Fedora Council has approved AI-assisted contributions to its Linux distribution, following intense debate and subject to strict conditions.…

Check Point helps exorcise vast 'Ghost Network' that used fake tutorials to push infostealers Google has taken down thousands of YouTube videos that were quietly spreading password-stealing malware disguised as cracked software and game cheats.…

Fault in DynamoDB system cascaded through AWS services, knocking major sites offline for hours Amazon has published a detailed postmortem explaining how a critical fault in DynamoDB's DNS management system cascaded into a day-long outage that disrupted major websites and services across multiple brands – with damage estimates potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars.…

Share price dips as cloud sales outlook disappoints amid slow US public sector bookings SAP disappointed investors today after reporting full-year cloud revenue at the bottom end of its guidance range, with execs saying customers in manufacturing and the public sector are taking longer to sign contracts.…

Cornyn & co ask DoJ to probe respected research institution for trying to 'influence' public The saga of the Great Space Shuttle Relocation has taken another turn after US lawmakers asked the Department of Justice to look into alleged lobbying by the Smithsonian museum to prevent a possible transfer of Discovery to Houston, Texas.…

Why monitor staff through phones or cameras when Bezos' boxshifter can strap surveillance to their heads? Amazon is testing AI-powered smart glasses to help its drivers get from their vans to customers' doorsteps.…