The Register - On-Prem

Ransomware negotiator weighs in on the extortion payment debate with El Reg (Sun, 12 May 2024)
As gang tactics get nastier while attacks hit all-time highs Interview  Ransomware hit an all-time high last year, with more than 60 criminal gangs listing at least 4,500 victims – and these infections don't show any signs of slowing.…
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US semiconductor building boom means staff shortages and talent slipping away (Sun, 12 May 2024)
McKinsey's solution? Reach out to middle schoolers The US semiconductor industry is said to be struggling to hire as well as retain staff as the country cranks up its chipmaking capacity to reduce its reliance on foreign supplies.…
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Critical infrastructure security will stay poor until everyone pulls together (Sat, 11 May 2024)
Claroty CEO Yaniv Vardi tells us what's needed to defend vital networks Interview  Take a glance at the cybersecurity headlines of late, and you'll see a familiar phrase that keeps cropping up: Critical infrastructure. …
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Hey, Reddit. Quick question. All those clicks on my ads. Were they actually real? (Sat, 11 May 2024)
Advertiser takes super-forum to court after demand for evidence rebuffed Reddit was sued by an unhappy advertiser who claims that internet giga-forum sold ads but provided no way to verify that real people were responsible for clicking on them.…
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German plod defend Tesla gigafactory from eco-warriors (Sat, 11 May 2024)
Elon Musk wonders why so many sour Krauts Attempts by climate protesters to storm Tesla's Berlin gigafactory were foiled by German police on Friday, with 16 arrests made.…
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Tesla accused of union buster bluster at Buffalo factory (Sat, 11 May 2024)
Musk's motor biz? Monitoring labor activists? Surely not! The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is taking Tesla back to the hearing chamber, this time to settle whether it interfered with the organizing rights of employees at its factory in Buffalo, New York.…
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Iran most likely to launch destructive cyber-attack against US – ex-Air Force intel analyst (Fri, 10 May 2024)
But China's the most technologically advanced Interview  China remains the biggest cyber threat to the US government, America's critical infrastructure, and its private-sector networks, the nation's intelligence community has assessed.…
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Latest figures show AMD chipping away at Intel's CPU dominance (Fri, 10 May 2024)
That other processor company is gaining ground, says Mercury Research Intel continues to rule the roost in the PC chip market, but AMD is gaining ground in server, desktop, and mobile, according to the latest figures from Mercury Research.…
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Samsung sole winner as US smartphone market hits sixth quarterly decline in a row (Fri, 10 May 2024)
Industry looks towards genAI, interest rate cuts for reprieve as America hangs onto its old phones The US smartphone market registered yet another year-over-year decline in shipments in the first calendar quarter, this time down eight percent compared to Q1 2023.…
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China's SMIC sounds alarm on price wars from silicon surplus (Fri, 10 May 2024)
Competition heats up while profits cool down Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is the latest to warn of a potential oversupply in the global market, saying there is an increasingly fierce price war for less advanced silicon in its domestic arena.…
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'Four horsemen of cyber' look back on 2008 DoD IT breach that led to US Cyber Command (Fri, 10 May 2024)
'This was a no sh*tter' RSAC  A malware-laced USB stick, inserted into a military laptop at a base in Afghanistan in 2008, led to what has been called the worst military breach in US history, and to the creation of the US Cyber Command.…
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Italy's climate super computer, Cassandra, to combine HPC with AI (Fri, 10 May 2024)
CPU-heavy big iron boasts Intel's HBM-packed Xeons and a tiny complement of Nvidia H100s Boffins in Italy are about to get their hands on a supercomputer that will more than double the resources available to study the effects of climate change.…
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Ex-White House election threat hunter weighs in on what to expect in November (Thu, 09 May 2024)
Spoiler alert: We're gonna talk about AI Interview  Mick Baccio, global security advisor at Splunk, has watched the evolution of election security threats in real time.…
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FCC slams banhammer on 5G fast lanes with final net neutrality text (Thu, 09 May 2024)
Any way you network slice it, you can't favor an app, says US watchdog The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released the final text of its net neutrality order, adding changes that appear to rule out so-called "fast lanes" for applications that some advocates feared would undermine it.…
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Dell customer order database of '49M records' stolen, now up for sale on dark web (Thu, 09 May 2024)
IT giant tries to downplay leak as just names, addresses, info about kit Dell has confirmed information about its customers and their orders has been stolen from one of its portals. Though the thief claimed to have swiped 49 million records, which are now up for sale on the dark web, the IT giant declined to say how many people may be affected.…
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How DPUs accelerate AI/ML (Thu, 09 May 2024)
Hyperscalers spent years evolving data processing unit technology – AI/ML makes it critical for the enterprise too Sponsored Post  Data processing units (DPUs) are the advanced forms of programmable network adapters that act as an interface between the server and the rest of the network in datacenters to help improve server utilization and power consumption.…
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Huawei's latest smartphone features mostly made-in-China components (Thu, 09 May 2024)
New-ish Kirin SoC performance doesn’t impress, however A teardown of Huawei's Pura 70 Pro reveals that the China tech company's latest smartphone is mostly made in China, with one notable exception.…
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Flexing financial muscles, Arm aims to elbow into Windows PC market (Thu, 09 May 2024)
Despite record revenues, Wall Street doesn't expect growth to last Chip designer Arm predicts that PCs based on its architecture will account for a significant share of the Windows market within three years as the company claims record revenues for the quarter just ended.…
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Hypothetical TSMC invasion 'absolutely devastating' says Raimondo (Thu, 09 May 2024)
No it's not happened, but officials want readiness in the South China Sea The US Secretary of Commerce says it would be "absolutely devastating" if China seized Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and locked down the South China Sea.…
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Asia's hyperscalers hustle for juice as datacenters drain grid (Thu, 09 May 2024)
Power shortages are driving the industry to once-unthinkable places Southeast Asia's hyperscalers face plenty of challenges – from securing talent, property, and keeping construction costs down – but these hurdles pale in comparison to the task of banking enough power.…
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Microsoft builds $3.3B cloud campus on Foxconn's failed Wisconsin LCD plant plot (Thu, 09 May 2024)
A Pleasant spot to Mount an AI push After Foxconn failed to turn Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, into an LCD manufacturing mecca as promised, the site is getting a new lease on life: Microsoft will build a $3.3 billion datacenter campus there.…
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Rivian crawls out covered in $1.5B of red ink, panting that it's still alive (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Leccy car maker ships bunch of vehicles, losing around $39K on each one Cost-cutting layoffs have had little effect on Rivian's bottom line, as the troubled electric car maker has limped from another quarter with more than a billion dollars in losses. …
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Undersea cables must have high-priority protection before they become top targets (Wed, 08 May 2024)
It's 'essential to national security' ex-Navy intel officer tells us Interview  As undersea cables carry increasing amounts of information, cyber and physical attacks against them will cause a greater impact on the wider internet.…
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America will make at least quarter of advanced chips in 2032, compared to China’s 2% (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Projecting much, US semiconductor industry? By 2032 America is projected to produce 28 percent of the world's most advanced processors while China will be making just two percent, or so the US Semiconductor Industry Association predicts.…
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SpiNNcloud Systems unveils Arm-based 'neuromorphic supercomputer' (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Brain-inspired chip folks set to show off hardware at ISC next week SpiNNcloud Systems says it is making commercially available a hybrid AI high performance computer system based on an architecture pioneered by Steve Furber, one of the designers of the original Arm processor.…
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Apple broke the law with anti-union tactics in NYC, labor watchdog barks (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Interrogations, confiscating flyers, and prohibiting literature is no bueno, board says in final decision of 2022 case Apple tried to protest, but the complaints fell on deaf ears as the US National Labor Relations Board has finally decided the tech giant violated labor laws by interfering with union organizing activities at a New York City location.…
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Transport watchdog's patience wears thin as Tesla Autopilot remedies may not be enough (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Crashes continue even with recall fixes in place The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has written to Tesla as the automaker's electric cars keep crashing despite a recall to fix problems with the Autopilot software.…
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iFixit hails replaceable LPCAMM2 laptop memory as a 'big deal' (Wed, 08 May 2024)
So long SODIMM? Only in new Thinkpad so far, but memory format may well spread across market LPCAMM2 memory is getting the thumbs up from the team at iFixit, which hailed it as a return to the upgradeable laptop and reckons the writing is on the wall for models with soldered-down, non-serviceable memory.…
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Amazon and Epson accuse a bunch of traders of selling knockoff print ink (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Multiple Marketplace accounts sold fake bottles, cartridges for 2 years+, claim companies Amazon and printer manufacturer Seiko Epson have filed a joint action against firms in Turkey and the UK which they claim sold counterfeit printer bottles and cartridges on the global online retailer's platform.…
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UK opens investigation of MoD payroll contractor after confirming attack (Wed, 08 May 2024)
China vehemently denies involvement UK Government has confirmed a cyberattack on the payroll system used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) led to "malign" forces accessing data on current and a limited number of former armed forces personnel.…
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US commerce department yanks back Huawei export licenses (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Intel and Qualcomm reportedly among those cut off Updated  The US Commerce Department has revoked some of the licenses held by tech companies to supply Chinese megacorp Huawei.…
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Intel's quantum leap in wafer-wide cryo-testing sets cool new standard (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Approach could help make forever upcoming tech more reliable Intel says it has made two advancements towards realizing silicon-based quantum processors which involves optimizing a standard fabrication process and developing a means to test the quality of resulting individual devices across a full 300mm wafer.…
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Negotiating the evolving data storage landscape (Wed, 08 May 2024)
How Pure Storage can smooth the journey of keeping up with constant change Webinar  Technology advances quickly - it can almost hurt to try and keep up with every trend and new feature.…
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Add AI servers to the list of iDevices Apple Silicon could soon power (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Where have you been, Cupertino? Updated  We can add Apple to the list of tech titans developing their own custom AI accelerators – at least that's what unnamed sources are telling the Wall Street Journal.…
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MITRE promises a cute little 17-PFLOPS AI super for the rest of Uncle Sam's agencies (Wed, 08 May 2024)
No child process left behind Later this year, MITRE is getting its hands on a modest supercomputer and is planning to use it to divvy out AI computing time to US government agencies.…
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Dell to color-code staff based on how hybrid they really are in RTO push (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Sources slam aggressive 'back to school' grading system as HR vows to track VPN use, badge swipes Exclusive  Dell has told workers it will track the onsite presence of hybrid employees – those who work part remotely, part in the office – using electronic badge swipes, VPN monitoring, and a rather creepy color-coding system.…
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America's War on Drugs and Crime will be AI powered, says Homeland Security boss (Wed, 08 May 2024)
Or at least it might well be if these trial programs work out, with some civil lib oversight etc etc etc RSAC  AI is a double-edged sword in that the government can see ways in which the tech can protect and also be used to attack Americans, says US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.…
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Watch out for rogue DHCP servers decloaking your VPN connections (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Avoid traffic-redirecting snoops who have TunnelVision A newly discovered vulnerability undermines countless VPN clients in that their traffic can be quietly routed away from their encrypted tunnels and intercepted by snoops on the network.…
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IBM says these back-office, network edge Power 10 servers would be sweet for – yes, you guessed it – AI (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Short on cores, big on threads and matrix math Not to be left out of the AI infrastructure game, on Tuesday IBM unveiled a pair of tiny Power 10 servers designed to preprocess data at the network edge.…
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Apple unveils M4 chip with neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, and some other kit (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Oh, right – there's new iPad Pro and Air models, a pencil and some other stuff Apple held its anticipated iPad event today, and the most attention-grabbing news wasn't the new device models or the refreshed iPad Air lineup - it was the unveiling of Apple's homegrown M4 chip with a surprisingly powerful neural processing unit (NPU). …
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TikTok sues America to undo divest-or-die law (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Nothing like folks in Beijing lecturing us on the Constitution TikTok and its China-based parent ByteDance sued the US government today to prevent the forced sale or shutdown of the video-sharing giant.…
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Infineon trims financial forecast amid order slowdown (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Chipmaker outlines plans to save hundreds of millions and, hey presto, share price magically jumps Infineon, maker of chips for the automotive and industrial sectors, told investors that it is embarking on a cost purge after lowering revenue estimates for the full financial year amid weakened demand.…
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Tesla layoff circus runs into fourth week with another round of cuts (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Musk continues quest to make Tesla leaner, meaner, more profitable Another week, another round of layoffs at Tesla to report, and this time engineers are caught up in the mix. …
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TSMC fully booked on advanced packaging until 2025 (Tue, 07 May 2024)
TrendForce warns of 'potential crowding out effects on HBM' TSMC's advanced packaging capacity is fully booked for the next two years, thanks to Nvidia and AMD needs, according to reports that echo an earlier earnings call.…
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A tale of two Chinas: Our tech governance isn't perfect, but we still get to say no (Tue, 07 May 2024)
Too many folks who should know better saying info-slurping tactics of Big Tech are just as bad Opinion  Which China do you want? The innovative good global citizen, adding to the storehouse of knowledge while making better products and services? Or the autocracy, determined to advance the interests of the leadership through any and all means, untrammeled by legal safeguards within its borders and, wherever possible, outside them?…
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Council claims database pain forced it to drop apostrophes from street names (Tue, 07 May 2024)
What next, trouble at tmill? A row in the UK has locals and council members at odds over apostrophes, and yes – this does actually have a tech angle. …
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Meta, Spotify break Apple's device fingerprinting rules – new claim (Tue, 07 May 2024)
And the iOS titan doesn't seem that bothered with data leaking out Updated  Last week, Apple began requiring iOS developers justify the use of a specific set of APIs that could be used for device fingerprinting.…
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Semiconductor digital twins to sip $285M from America's CHIPS Act funding pool (Mon, 06 May 2024)
Fake it until you make it, literally The US government on Monday earmarked $285 million in CHIPS Act funding for the development of semiconductor digital twins.…
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Cheyenne supercomputer sells at auction for just $480K (Mon, 06 May 2024)
And you thought consumer electronics suffered from depreciation The Cheyenne Supercomputer, a 5.34 peak PFLOPS behemoth that was once one of the fastest systems in the world, has just been sold at auction for $480,085. …
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Three years on from Biden infosec EO, and we're still trying to check all the boxes (Mon, 06 May 2024)
It's taking time, but isn't a dead issue, US Government Accountability Office security director Marisol Cruz Cain says interview  It's been several years since President Biden signed an executive order to improve America's cybersecurity. The US Government Accountability Office said recently there's still a number of critical goals stemming from that order to accomplish.…
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