The Register

The case of the improbably well-endowed rat

Biomedical visualization specialists haven't come to terms with how or whether to use generative AI tools when creating images for health and science applications. But there's an urgent need to develop guidelines and best practices because incorrect illustrations of anatomy and related subject matter could cause harm in clinical settings or as online misinformation.…

But they were supervised by American 'digital escorts'

Microsoft has been left with egg on its face after an independent investigation revealed a concerning pattern of using workers based in China to maintain and support US government customers on its Azure cloud.…

Some heading into retirement, others to private sector

Almost 3,900 of NASA's workforce is set to leave the agency thanks to voluntary incentives, with senior staffers among those heading out the door.…

Europe is acting like the victim of a bully

world war fee  The US president and EU chief agreed to a deal over the weekend, averting a trade war between the world's two largest economies, but the agreement has a number of European leaders calling foul. …

Investigators detail persistent background connections and file transmissions despite telemetry opt-out

An analysis of data collection in the Trae AI-powered IDE from ByteDance shows extensive network activity, which continued even when telemetry was disabled in settings.…

No word on who's behind it, but attack has hallmarks of the usual suspects

Financial services biz Allianz says the majority of customers of one of its North American subsidiaries had their data stolen in a cyberattack.…

A better minesweeper is needed. Time for an intervention to save Microsoft from itself

Workflow. Productivity. Enablement. These are the holy words by which software companies sanctify their ever more plunder-hungry Viking raids on enterprise IT coffers. If only they were true. At least Vikings didn’t pretend to be offering monastery renovations and smart haircuts when they turned up.…

Musk: 'I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress'

Samsung Electronics has scored a $16.5 billion contract to make the silicon to power Tesla's next-gen self-driving computer hardware. The firm is set to produce this from a new fab it is building in Texas, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.…

Russia's top airline cancels 49 flights, delays affect many more

Russia's largest airline, Aeroflot, canceled numerous flights on Monday morning following what it says was a failure in its IT systems - something hacktivists are claiming responsiblity for.…

Local providers squeezed out despite market growth, leaving sovereignty hopes in question

European cloud infrastructure companies make up just 15 percent of their own market, and the huge investment the US giants can wield makes their dominance "an impossible hill to climb" for any would-be challengers.…

At least at Chipzookie... TSMC and Global Foundaries may yet continue to try to defy physics

Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan has warned that he may pull investment from Intel's leading-edge 14A semiconductor process node unless "a meaningful external customer" can guarantee profits – a move which may finally spell the end of the chipmaker's loyal adherence to Moore's Law.…

Up to £925M on table as government pushes ahead with project likely to be a decade late

The UK government is talking to tech suppliers to provide handsets for the country's emergency services' voice and data network, in a procurement which could be worth up to £925 million ($1.24 billion).…

And was then blamed for not knowing about inaccurate labels

Who, Me?  Returning to work on Monday morning can feel like a mistake, which is why The Register welcomes readers back to their desks with a fresh instalment of Who, Me? It's the reader-contributed column in which we tell your tales of making a mess at work, and somehow surviving.…

Plus, leak site for BlackSuit seized, Tea spilt, and avoid crime if you've got a famous dad

Infosec in brief  A computer intrusion hit the US spy satellite agency, but officials insist no classified secrets were lost - just some unclassified ones, apparently.…

Surveillance-based pricing? Two lawmakers say enough

Two Democratic members of Congress, Greg Casar (D-TX) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI,) have introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives to ban the use of AI surveillance to set prices and wages.…

Chipzilla hopes it can pull an Altera with its NEX division, and is now looking for buyers

Intel isn't just laying off employees and closing plants in a bid to cut costs – it's also reportedly planning to get rid of its entire Network and Edge Group (NEX) to help right the ship. …

AT&T and Verizon refused to hand over the security assessments, says Cantwell

US Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) has demanded that Google-owned incident response firm Mandiant hand over the Salt Typhoon-related security assessments of AT&T and Verizon that, according to the lawmaker, both operators have thus far refused to give Congress.…

The latest version of systemd looks to be a big one, with substantial new functionality. More to love – right?

Like it or not, systemd is the industry-standard init system these days. A new release is coming, and it's a big one.…

Space is hard, especially for racks of fragile computer equipment

opinion  William Gibson's Neuromancer holds up well after 40 years. One of the cyberpunk novel's concepts was an AI housed in an orbital datacenter (ODC) above the Earth. Today, startup companies and venture capital firms are hoping to turn orbital datacenters into reality to enable AI, believing that free power from the sun and cooling using the emptiness of space will unlock the technology from its terrestrial-based shackles of electric bills and cooling water.…

If you've ever logged into a network on your laptop or phone, the password is still there

hands-on  You're at a place you've been before and your Windows laptop immediately remembers the SSID and password for the Wi-Fi network, logging you on automatically. But your phone, tablet, and your coworker's laptop have never been here before, so they can't connect. If only you remembered the password or had it written down somewhere.…