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UK's F-35A Purchase: Nuclear Deterrent, Logistical Headache

2025-06-27
UK's F-35A Purchase: Nuclear Deterrent, Logistical Headache

The UK government announced the purchase of 12 nuclear-capable F-35A fighter jets to bolster NATO's deterrent. However, these new jets are incompatible with the RAF's refueling tankers, creating a logistical challenge. The F-35A offers extended range and payload but lacks the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) capability of the F-35B, meaning it can't operate from aircraft carriers. This purchase reinstates a nuclear role for the RAF, but faces integration and logistical hurdles. Some experts see it as a stopgap measure until the next-generation Tempest fighter enters service.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Psylo: A New Browser That Fights Browser Fingerprinting

2025-06-26
Psylo: A New Browser That Fights Browser Fingerprinting

Mysk, a Canadian company, launched Psylo, an iOS browser designed to combat browser fingerprinting, a technique used for ad tracking and targeting. Psylo isolates tabs into 'silos,' applying unique anti-fingerprinting measures like canvas randomization. It uses the Mysk Private Proxy Network to mask each silo's IP address and encrypts network traffic. Unlike VPNs, Psylo adjusts timezone and language to match each proxy's geolocation for enhanced privacy. The company emphasizes no logging of personally identifiable information or browsing data, only aggregated bandwidth usage for abuse prevention. Psylo offers robust privacy protection at $9.99/month.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech anti-fingerprinting

UK MPs Question Fujitsu's Continued Bidding for Government Contracts Amidst Horizon Scandal

2025-06-25
UK MPs Question Fujitsu's Continued Bidding for Government Contracts Amidst Horizon Scandal

Despite a previous pledge to halt bidding for UK public sector contracts following the Post Office Horizon scandal, Fujitsu continues to pursue large-scale IT projects, sparking outrage among British MPs and peers. The scandal involved a faulty computer system supplied by Fujitsu that led to the wrongful conviction of hundreds of subpostmasters. While Fujitsu claims to only bid when directly invited, it won a £125 million contract and continues bidding for others, including the £370 million Trader Support Service (TSS). Parliamentarians are concerned about Fujitsu's continued involvement while compensation for victims remains unresolved, questioning the government's assessment and the potential reputational damage.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Horizon Scandal

Western Digital's Patent Infringement Damages Reduced to $1

2025-06-25
Western Digital's Patent Infringement Damages Reduced to $1

Western Digital has dramatically reduced its patent infringement payout to just $1. A California jury initially awarded SPEX Technologies $553 million for infringement related to Western Digital's self-encrypting hard drives. However, the judge overturned the damages due to SPEX shifting its damages theory during the trial and lacking sufficient evidence to support the original amount. While Western Digital lost on most other post-trial motions, its legal team considers this a significant victory.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech patent infringement damages

Google's AI Summaries: Devouring the Web's Ecosystem?

2025-06-22
Google's AI Summaries: Devouring the Web's Ecosystem?

Google's AI-generated web page summaries, launched in May 2024, increased search impressions but decreased click-through rates to source websites by 30 percent. This means more people use Google Search, but fewer visit the original sites. Studies show significantly higher click-through rates when AI summaries are absent. Web publishers are alarmed as search traffic, and thus ad and subscription revenue, plummets. Data reveals a drastic imbalance between web page crawling and referral traffic for AI companies like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic; Google's ratio has soared from 2:1 to 18:1. This has led to lawsuits from publishers questioning compensation for the content used to train AI models. While Google dominates search, its actions risk undermining the very foundation of its business.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Content Ecosystem

Surge in Chinese-Made Signal Jammers Prompts DHS Crackdown

2025-06-20
Surge in Chinese-Made Signal Jammers Prompts DHS Crackdown

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a warning about a massive 830% increase in seizures of illegal signal jammers since 2021, primarily originating from China. These devices, illegal in the US and UK, disrupt emergency services and law enforcement communications, facilitating crimes like home invasions and bank robberies. The DHS highlights cases where jammers hampered police responses, and emphasizes the threat to critical infrastructure. While China also bans public use of such jammers, the DHS hopes for cooperation to curb their manufacturing and smuggling.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Homeland Security

Broadcom's VMware Bundling: Value Proposition or Cost Trap?

2025-06-20
Broadcom's VMware Bundling: Value Proposition or Cost Trap?

Broadcom's shift to subscription bundles for VMware software, following its acquisition, has angered smaller customers who report cost increases of 8 to 15 times. Broadcom counters that 87% of its top 10,000 customers have adopted VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), arguing many weren't fully utilizing the bundled components. Customers are discovering VCF's capabilities in configuration, security, and cost management, previously unavailable with their piecemeal solutions. However, industry analysts remain skeptical, suggesting aggressive sales tactics may have forced purchases of unnecessary software. The situation highlights ongoing enterprise exploration of private and hybrid cloud strategies, driven by concerns over public cloud costs and data sovereignty.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Microsoft to Block Legacy Authentication Protocols by Default in July

2025-06-19
Microsoft to Block Legacy Authentication Protocols by Default in July

Microsoft is enhancing security by default-blocking legacy authentication protocols in Microsoft 365 starting in July 2025. This impacts access to services like SharePoint and OneDrive, and requires administrator consent for third-party app access. While improving security against brute-force and phishing attacks, this change might disrupt workflows, necessitating administrators to prepare and configure admin consent workflows beforehand. The change affects all Microsoft 365 tenants.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Starship Explodes on Test Stand: Another Setback for SpaceX's Ambitious Plans

2025-06-19
Starship Explodes on Test Stand: Another Setback for SpaceX's Ambitious Plans

SpaceX's Starship rocket suffered a catastrophic explosion during a static fire test, marking the latest setback in a string of recent failures. The explosion occurred on the test stand, with SpaceX assuring all personnel are safe. This incident significantly impacts the planned tenth test flight scheduled for June 29th or 30th, casting a shadow over planned Mars landings (2026) and the Artemis III lunar mission (2027). Prior to the incident, the Starship had completed a full-duration static fire test of its 33 Raptor engines. Video footage suggests the explosion originated from a rupture or venting event at the top of the Starship. SpaceX is yet to release detailed investigation results, and Elon Musk has remained unusually quiet.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Rocket Explosion

MIT Study: AI Chatbots Reduce Brain Activity, Impair Fact Retention

2025-06-19
MIT Study: AI Chatbots Reduce Brain Activity, Impair Fact Retention

A new preprint study from MIT reveals that using AI chatbots to complete tasks actually reduces brain activity and may lead to poorer fact retention. Researchers had three groups of students write essays: one without assistance, one using a search engine, and one using GPT-4. The LLM group showed the weakest brain activity and worst knowledge retention, performing poorly on subsequent tests. The study suggests that early reliance on AI may lead to shallow encoding and impaired learning, recommending delaying AI integration until sufficient self-driven cognitive effort has occurred.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI Brain Activity

AI Training Bots Overwhelm Cultural Institutions

2025-06-17
AI Training Bots Overwhelm Cultural Institutions

A surge in bots harvesting data for AI training is overwhelming cultural institutions like museums and archives. A survey of 43 organizations reveals that aggressive bots, often exceeding robots.txt guidelines, are causing website slowdowns and outages. The problem is so severe that it's threatening the accessibility of digital collections. The report calls on AI companies to develop more responsible data acquisition methods, as cultural institutions lack the resources to endlessly fight back against this.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Firefox's Downward Spiral: The Decline of a Once-Great Browser

2025-06-17
Firefox's Downward Spiral: The Decline of a Once-Great Browser

The once-dominant browser Firefox is facing a serious crisis. From altering user agreements and abandoning promises of user data privacy, to prioritizing AI in 2025 despite lacking resources; from shutting down useful utilities Pocket and Fakespot, to Firefox itself experiencing increasing technical problems like failing to load mainstream websites, slow speed, excessive memory usage, etc., Firefox is gradually losing users. Mozilla's poor handling of Snap and Flatpak packaging, and the disastrous handling of an expiring root certificate, further exacerbated user loss. Reliant on Google for 90% of its revenue and holding only a 1.9% market share, Firefox's future looks bleak; it may truly be at its end.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Pentagon awards OpenAI $200M contract for 'frontier AI'

2025-06-17
Pentagon awards OpenAI $200M contract for 'frontier AI'

The US Department of Defense has awarded OpenAI a contract worth up to $200 million to develop "frontier AI" capabilities for national security. While OpenAI emphasizes its technology won't be used for weapons, the contract's mention of "warfighting" and recent appointments of OpenAI executives to the US Army Reserve have raised concerns. The collaboration aims to explore AI applications in healthcare and cybersecurity, among others, but details remain scarce. OpenAI's past work with military contractor Anduril further fuels scrutiny of this partnership.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech AI military applications defense contract

Google Cloud's Massive Outage: A Simple Code Error's Catastrophic Impact

2025-06-17
Google Cloud's Massive Outage: A Simple Code Error's Catastrophic Impact

Last week's massive Google Cloud outage, lasting several hours and affecting numerous clients including Cloudflare, stemmed from a code change in the "Service Control" component of Google's API management control plane. The new feature lacked proper error handling and feature flag protection, leading to a null pointer exception. This triggered a cascading failure upon a specific policy change, overloading the infrastructure. Google admitted insufficient error handling and monitoring, promising improved external communication and internal processes. However, the incident highlights the vulnerability of even tech giants to large-scale outages.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech code error

Japan Launches $693M Initiative to Lure US Researchers

2025-06-16
Japan Launches $693M Initiative to Lure US Researchers

Amidst concerns over the Trump administration's policies impacting US academic freedom and research funding, Japan is aggressively courting disgruntled American researchers. A ¥100 billion ($693 million) package aims to create a world-class research environment, attracting top talent in fields like AI and semiconductors. This move follows similar initiatives in Europe and the UK, highlighting a global competition for scientific expertise. Japan's investment is further bolstered by its own ambitious semiconductor development plans.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech global talent competition global talent war

LLM-powered AI Agents Fail to Meet Expectations in CRM Tests

2025-06-16
LLM-powered AI Agents Fail to Meet Expectations in CRM Tests

A new benchmark reveals that Large Language Model (LLM)-based AI agents underperform on standard CRM tests, particularly regarding confidentiality. Salesforce research shows a 58% success rate for single-step tasks, plummeting to 35% for multi-step tasks. Critically, these agents demonstrate poor awareness of confidential information, negatively impacting performance. The study highlights limitations in existing benchmarks and reveals a significant gap between current LLM capabilities and real-world enterprise needs, raising concerns for developers and businesses relying on AI agents for efficiency gains.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI

AI Model Collapse: The Looming Threat of Data Contamination

2025-06-15
AI Model Collapse: The Looming Threat of Data Contamination

The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022 was a watershed moment for AI, comparable to the atomic bomb. Now, researchers warn of 'AI model collapse,' where AI models are trained on synthetic data created by other AI models, leading to unreliable results. This is likened to the contamination of metals by nuclear fallout, requiring 'low-background' materials. Researchers are advocating for access to pre-2022 data, considered 'clean,' to prevent this collapse and maintain competition. Policy solutions like mandatory labeling of AI-generated content and promoting federated learning are proposed to mitigate the risks of data contamination and monopolies.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI AI model collapse data contamination

Silicon Valley Tech Execs Join Army Reserve to Boost Military AI

2025-06-15
Silicon Valley Tech Execs Join Army Reserve to Boost Military AI

Top Silicon Valley tech leaders, including Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil, and former CRO Bob McGrew, have joined a newly formed Army Reserve unit: Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps. They'll serve as lieutenant colonels, leveraging their private-sector expertise to advise the Army and accelerate AI adoption in military planning and operations. This initiative aims to unite American innovation with vital military missions, modernizing the force and enhancing its capabilities. The unit's name, '201', is likely a nod to the HTTP status code for resource creation.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Military AI Army Modernization

Rocky Linux 10 Released: Divergence Widens Among RHEL Alternatives

2025-06-14
Rocky Linux 10 Released: Divergence Widens Among RHEL Alternatives

Rocky Linux 10, "Red Quartz," has reached general availability, adding RISC-V support but dropping older Raspberry Pi models. Compared to AlmaLinux 10 and RHEL 10, released earlier this year, subtle differences emerge in both hardware and software. Most notably, RHEL 10 and Rocky Linux 10 require x86-64-v3 CPUs, while AlmaLinux 10 uniquely supports x86-64-v2. Furthermore, RHEL 10's AI assistant, "Lightspeed," is absent from Rocky Linux 10. While functionally similar, Rocky Linux 10 is subtly diverging from its RHEL alternatives in hardware compatibility, AI features, and commercial support, carving its own niche in the market.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

Denmark Ditches Microsoft, Embraces LibreOffice

2025-06-14
Denmark Ditches Microsoft, Embraces LibreOffice

Denmark's Minister for Digital Affairs, Caroline Olsen, announced that her department will phase out Microsoft software in favor of LibreOffice, starting with replacing half of the ministry's computers within the first month. This follows similar moves by Copenhagen and Aarhus, and reflects a growing European focus on digital sovereignty. While challenges like macros and customizations exist, many staff lack advanced usage skills. The shift highlights the rise of open-source office suites and cloud services like Collabora's CODE and Google Workspace, but also concerns about reliance on US tech giants, leading countries like France to explore independent alternatives.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

UK Universities Shell Out Millions for Controversial Oracle Java Deal

2025-06-13
UK Universities Shell Out Millions for Controversial Oracle Java Deal

UK universities and colleges have signed a £9.86 million ($13.33 million) framework agreement with Oracle to continue using its controversial Java SE Universal Subscription. The deal includes a waiver of historical fees for institutions using Oracle Java since 2023. This follows criticism of the new subscription model's high cost, prompting many to switch to open-source alternatives. Despite this, UK higher education institutions chose to renew, citing simplified licensing and increased efficiency. However, questions remain about why they didn't switch to open-source options.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Licensing Agreement Open Source Alternatives

CISA's Leadership Exodus Deepens Amidst Budget Cuts and Security Concerns

2025-06-12
CISA's Leadership Exodus Deepens Amidst Budget Cuts and Security Concerns

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is facing a leadership crisis. Executive Director Bridget Bean's departure follows a pattern of high-level exits, leaving the agency without a Senate-confirmed director and struggling with significant budget cuts. A former employee cited a "culture of fear" under the new administration as hindering CISA's mission. With potential budget cuts ranging from $135 million to $495 million, and the confirmation of a new director blocked, CISA's future, and the nation's cybersecurity, remains uncertain.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech leadership crisis

AI Coding Tools: Productivity Boost, Trust Deficit

2025-06-12
AI Coding Tools: Productivity Boost, Trust Deficit

A Qodo survey reveals that while AI coding tools significantly boost developer productivity, trust in their output remains low. Many developers still manually review AI-generated code, negating some productivity gains. The survey found that experienced developers benefit most, while the majority see moderate improvements, and some fail to effectively leverage AI tools. Although about 60% of developers reported improved code quality from AI, 76% still won't ship AI-generated code without human review. Top developer requests for improvement include better contextual understanding, reduced hallucinations, and improved code quality. Qodo's CEO suggests feeding AI models more detailed information—product requirements, specifications, coding styles—to improve output quality.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

OpenAI's o3 Model: Cheap AI, Bright Future?

2025-06-12
OpenAI's o3 Model: Cheap AI, Bright Future?

OpenAI launched its more energy-efficient ChatGPT o3 model, boasting 80% lower costs. CEO Sam Altman envisions a future where AI is 'too cheap to meter,' but MIT Technology Review points to research indicating massive AI energy consumption by 2028. Despite this, Altman remains optimistic, predicting abundant intelligence and energy in the coming decades, driving human progress. Critics, however, see Altman's predictions as overly optimistic, ignoring numerous limitations and drawing comparisons to Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos. OpenAI's partnership with Google Cloud also raises eyebrows, contrasting with Microsoft's stance last year labeling OpenAI a competitor.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI

US Military Fights for the Right to Repair

2025-06-12
US Military Fights for the Right to Repair

The US Navy is pushing for the right to repair its own equipment, citing the case of the USS Gerald R. Ford, where oven malfunctions caused major logistical problems due to contractual restrictions. Secretary Phelan emphasized the need to regain control of intellectual property and ensure sailors can fix hardware, particularly during combat. The Army also faces similar issues, prompting a directive from the Secretary of Defense to include right-to-repair provisions in future contracts. This bipartisan effort aligns with the Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act currently under consideration by Congress. Experts believe this move will reduce costs and improve efficiency while demonstrating trust in military personnel's capabilities.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech right to repair contracts

1.5TB of JWST Deep-Space Data Released for Open Science

2025-06-10
1.5TB of JWST Deep-Space Data Released for Open Science

A NASA-backed project, COSMOS-Web, leveraging data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has released over 1.5 TB of open-access data offering the largest view into the deep universe to date. This dataset includes a galaxy catalog and an interactive viewer, allowing users to search for specific objects and view their properties. The project focused on making the previously available but unwieldy raw data more usable for scientists. Processed using the French supercomputer CANDIDE, the data provides an invaluable resource for studying the reionization process in the early universe and is now open to the global scientific community for further research and discovery.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Astronomy Data

ICANN Challenges AFRINIC Election Amidst Governance Crisis

2025-06-10
ICANN Challenges AFRINIC Election Amidst Governance Crisis

AFRINIC, the African regional internet registry, is embroiled in a governance crisis, leaving it without a board or CEO since 2022. A long-running legal dispute with Cloud Innovation led to a court-appointed receiver and Cloud Innovation's unexpected addition as a shareholder. ICANN, concerned about transparency and fairness, has questioned the election process, particularly the composition of the Nomination Committee and the unusual circumstances surrounding Cloud Innovation's membership. Despite ICANN's concerns, the election is proceeding, highlighting the complexities and challenges in regional internet registry governance.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

AI Security: The Roadblock to Enterprise AI Adoption

2025-06-09
AI Security: The Roadblock to Enterprise AI Adoption

Chatterbox Labs' CEO and CTO highlight that enterprise AI adoption is only at 10%, due to a lack of understanding and continuous security testing mechanisms for AI. They argue that traditional cybersecurity measures are insufficient to address AI's unique attack surface, and enterprises need to establish continuous testing to verify the safety of AI services and avoid blindly trusting vendor claims. Only in this way can large-scale enterprise AI adoption be promoted, reducing risks and costs.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Enterprise AI Adoption Continuous Security Testing

Linux Foundation Launches FAIR Package Manager to Stabilize Fractured WordPress Ecosystem

2025-06-07
Linux Foundation Launches FAIR Package Manager to Stabilize Fractured WordPress Ecosystem

Following months of infighting and legal battles between WordPress creator Matthew Mullenweg, his company Automattic, and rival WP Engine, the Linux Foundation introduced the FAIR Package Manager. This decentralized system aims to distribute WordPress updates and plugins independently, mitigating the risks of single-point control. Designed as a drop-in WordPress plugin, FAIR replaces centralized services with a federated, open-source infrastructure, improving security and aligning with GDPR compliance. The move is welcomed by community members seeking to stabilize the WordPress ecosystem and reduce reliance on any single entity.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

22 Sailors Rescued After EV Fire Engulfs Cargo Ship

2025-06-06
22 Sailors Rescued After EV Fire Engulfs Cargo Ship

A fire broke out on the Morning Midas, a cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles (800 of which were electric), approximately 304 miles south of Adak, Alaska. The fire, believed to have originated from electric vehicle batteries, proved difficult to extinguish due to the salt water's conductive properties causing short circuits and thermal runaway in the batteries. All 22 crew members were rescued, but the ship is expected to continue burning until specialized firefighting crews arrive. This incident highlights the significant challenges posed by electric vehicle battery fires at sea.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Electric Vehicle Fire Maritime Incident Cargo Ship
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