Updated: 21:00 Thu, Feb 12 2026. (Last checked: 40 mins ago) |
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AI agent seemingly tries to shame open source developer for rejected pull request - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:47:03 GMT)Belligerent bot bullies maintainer in blog post to get its wayToday, it's back talk. Tomorrow, could it be the world? On Tuesday, Scott Shambaugh, a volunteer maintainer of Python plotting library Matplotlib, rejected an AI bot's code submission, citing a requirement that contributions come from people. But that bot wasn't done with him.… |
Who's the bossware? Ransomware slingers like employee monitoring tools, too - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:07:13 GMT)As if snooping on your workers wasn't bad enoughYour supervisor may like using employee monitoring apps to keep tabs on you, but crims like the snooping software even more. Threat actors are now using legit bossware to blend into corporate networks and attempt ransomware deployment.… |
Oracle suits up for Air Force Cloud One program with $88M contract - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:40:15 GMT)Big Red joins AWS on a multi-cloud defense platformOracle has picked up an $88 million contract with the US Air Force to provide cloud infrastructure services for the department's Cloud One program.… |
$8K laundry bot knows when to hold ’em, knows when to fold ’em, and knows it has help standing by - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:10:34 GMT)Not-onamous by a long shotNobody likes folding laundry, but you really have to hate it to spend $7,999 on a robot that'll fold it for you with a whole heap of limitations – including company employees getting the occasional peep at your tough-to-fold unmentionables.… |
Elon Musk paints exodus of xAI co-founders as 'evolution' - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:46:07 GMT)12-strong founding team down to 6 as boss looks MoonwardsElon Musk has framed the recent exodus of talent from his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, as a necessary growing pain, saying the company's evolution "required parting ways with some people."… |
'Another dark day': Users slam Microsoft over Polyglot Notebooks deprecation - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:23:07 GMT)Visual Studio Code extension faces March shutdown with no transition guidanceMicrosoft has abruptly announced the deprecation of Polyglot Notebooks with less than two months' notice, throwing the future of the .NET Interactive project into doubt.… |
Apple patches decade-old iOS zero-day, possibly exploited by commercial spyware - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:01:13 GMT)Flaw abused 'in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals'Apple patched a zero-day vulnerability affecting every iOS version since 1.0, used in what the company calls an "extremely sophisticated attack" against targeted individuals.… |
Memory price explosion triggers PC buying spree - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:31:13 GMT)DRAM doubles, NAND jumps 70% as corporate buyers race the clockExploding memory prices are pushing corporate buyers to fast-track PC purchases before costs climb further.… |
NASA pauses most Swift science ops to buy time for reboost mission - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:35:08 GMT)Anticipated summer launch is cutting it fineNASA has ended most science operations on its Swift observatory to keep the spacecraft in orbit a little longer.… |
Supply chain attacks now fuel a 'self-reinforcing' cybercrime economy - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 11:59:09 GMT)Researchers say breaches link identity abuse, SaaS compromise, and ransomware into a cascading cycleCybercriminals are turning supply chain attacks into an industrial-scale operation, linking breaches, credential theft, and ransomware into a "self-reinforcing" ecosystem, researchers say.… |
The big FOSS vendors don't eat their own dogfood – they pay for proprietary groupware - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 11:30:09 GMT)That's not a good ideaOpen Source Policy Summit 2026 SUSE recommends that companies should run on FOSS – but an accidental revelation from a company exec, live on stage, reveals it doesn't practice what it preaches. It's not alone.… |
UK unveils telecoms charter to curb mid-contract bill shocks - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:58:19 GMT)Legal teeth sold separatelyThe UK government claims a new Telecoms Consumer Charter will stop customers being hit by unexpected bill increases and offer clearer pricing when signing up to deals.… |
Feeling brave? Ministry of Defence seeks £300K digital boss to manage £4.6B spend - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:15:12 GMT)Whoever gets it will steer UK department's IT, AI strategy, and megabucks vendor dealsThe UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is offering between £270,000 to £300,000 for a senior digital leader who will oversee more than £4.6 billion in spending and more than 3,000 specialist staff.… |
The UK government isn't spending much taxpayer cash on X - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:29:20 GMT)Department for Education dropped £27,118. The rest, little to nothingMost UK government departments have spent little or nothing with social media platform X since July 2024 following an unpublished 2023 evaluation by the Cabinet Office. But the Department for Education has bucked the trend, spending £27,118.… |
Google: China's APT31 used Gemini to plan cyberattacks against US orgs - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:00:08 GMT)Meanwhile, IP-stealing 'distillation attacks' on the riseA Chinese government hacking group that has been sanctioned for targeting America's critical infrastructure used Google's AI chatbot, Gemini, to auto-analyze vulnerabilities and plan cyberattacks against US organizations, the company says.… |
Starlink speeds past terrestrial networks – and regulators - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 06:03:29 GMT)Low-earth orbit broadband is a no-brainer for remote area connectivity, but a brain teaser for lawmakers and networkersAPRICOT 2026 Starlink can sometimes shift data more quickly than is possible on terrestrial networks, and improves connectivity in remote areas. But the space broadband service also presents new technical and regulatory challenges, according to speakers who took to the stage on Tuesday at the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) in Jakarta, Indonesia.… |
Cisco hikes prices to cover memory cost rises, says you don’t much care - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 04:45:45 GMT)Switchzilla is only getting a small slice of the AI boom, but sees a campus refresh wave crestingCisco has increased the prices for its hardware to cover the increased cost of memory and says the resulting bigger bills are not changing customers’ buying habits.… |
Microsoft warns that poisoned AI buttons and links may betray your trust - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 01:07:06 GMT)Businesses are embedding prompts that produce content they want you to read, not the stuff AI makes if left to its own devicesAmid its ongoing promotion of AI’s wonders, Microsoft has warned customers it has found many instances of a technique that manipulates the technology to produce biased advice.… |
Anthropic promises its datacenters totally won't drive up your utility bill - (pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:47:13 GMT)Compute it leases from Amazon, MIcrosoft, and Google... that's another storyModel-maker and SaaS-y AI outfit Anthropic has committed to covering any increases in energy prices paid by consumers caused by its power-hungry datacenters.… |
Devilish devs spawn 287 Chrome extensions to flog your browser history to data brokers - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 21:23:08 GMT)Add-ons with 37M installs leak visited URLs to 30+ recipients, researcher saysThey know where you've been and they're going to share it. A security researcher has identified 287 Chrome extensions that allegedly exfiltrate browsing history data for an estimated 37.4 million installations.… |
Meta will let users tweak Threads algorithms as long as they ask nicely - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 20:50:14 GMT)Only for three days, though, then it's back to the misery feedMeta has decided to let Threads users make custom tweaks to its all-important algorithm, but don't expect your preferences to stick and do expect to bring your best manners.… |
Lawmakers demand great wall to keep advanced chipmaking gear out of China - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 20:09:24 GMT)Allies that don’t align on chip controls could face US component curbs, they argueBanning sales to Chinese-government-affiliated companies, apparently, is not enough. A bipartisan group of American lawmakers this week called on the Trump administration to enact a blanket ban on the sale of equipment used in the production of advanced semiconductors to all of China.… |
AI spurs employees to work harder, faster, and with fewer breaks, study finds - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:51:06 GMT)Like a puppy, a fun new toy soon turns into an unrelenting taskmasterA Harvard Business Review study is answering the question ‘what will employees do if AI saves them time at work?’ The answer: more work.… |
T-Mobile announces its network is now full of AI by rolling out real-time translation - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:28:13 GMT)This AI is so network native, the telco tells us, that it all works on existing hardware - no datacenters involvedT-Mobile is claiming it's now the first wireless carrier to integrate generative AI "directly into a wireless network," and it's rolling out real-time call translation as the first feature delivered on top of its new AI-filled cellular network. … |
Posting AI-generated caricatures on social media is risky, infosec killjoys warn - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 18:56:40 GMT)The more you share online, the more you open yourself to social engineeringIf you've seen the viral AI work pic trend where people are asking ChatGPT to "create a caricature of me and my job based on everything you know about me" and sharing it to social, you might think it's harmless. You'd be wrong.… |
Attending GTC? Join The Register for an exclusive dinner on scaling AI data platforms - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:50:33 GMT)Learn about how tech leaders are scaling AI in practicePromo AI projects fail at scale not because models don't work or GPUs lack performance. They fail because data can't keep pace.… |
Fukushima's radioactive hybrid terror pig boom was driven by amorous mothers - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:57:26 GMT)Genetic study finds domestic pigs' year-round breeding sped gene flow into wild boarBack in 2021, in the thick of pandemic mania, The Register gleefully reported that "radioactive hybrid terror pigs" were thriving in Japan's Fukushima exclusion zone.… |
Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 26H1, but you can't have it - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:15:06 GMT)No known issues, no .NET Framework 3.5, but only for new Snapdragon X2 hardware right nowMicrosoft has released Windows 11 26H1 but is warning the vast majority of users that it is not for them.… |
Were telcos tipped off to *that* ancient Telnet bug? Cyber pros say the signs stack up - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:41:47 GMT)Curious port filtering and traffic patterns suggest advisories weren’t the earliest warning signals sentTelcos likely received advance warning about January's critical Telnet vulnerability before its public disclosure, according to threat intelligence biz GreyNoise.… |
Brussels drafts blueprint to spot and swat rogue drones - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:51:43 GMT)Action Plan calls for EU-wide drills, industry forums, and expanded identification requirementsThe European Commission wants to see stronger EU-wide cooperation over malicious drones via a new action plan. Proposals include a central counter-drone test facility, changing the current rules governing civilian use, and a development boost to Europe's own drones and counter-drone systems.… |
How Microsoft's legal eagles wrangled Happy Days for Windows 95 - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:22:08 GMT)Has the OS also jumped the shark?Microsoft's Raymond Chen has revealed an unexpected use for the company's lawyers: securing permission from the cast of Happy Days so a Weezer music video could ship on the Windows 95 CD.… |
Doctors told to give Palantir's NHS data platform the cold shoulder - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:03:37 GMT)200,000-strong union says spy-tech firm's ICE work undermines patient trustBritish doctors are being urged to pull back from the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) after their union called on members to stop non-clinical use of the Palantir-built system.… |
Payroll pirates are conning help desks to steal workers' identities and redirect paychecks - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:00:14 GMT)Attackers using social engineering to exploit business processes, rather than tunnelling in via techExclusive When fraudsters go after people's paychecks, "every employee on earth becomes a target," according to Binary Defense security sleuth John Dwyer.… |
Apple's Creator Studio creates a subscription where free apps used to live - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 12:47:29 GMT)Mac faithful aghast at helpful wallet-emptying suggestionsApple fanbois are realizing what the Creator Studio subscription means for its productivity apps, and many are unhappy with the direction of travel.… |
VMware scores early win in Siemens software licensing dispute - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:39:50 GMT)Judge agrees with Virtzilla's argument that the case should be heard in the US, not GermanyVMware appears to have secured an early procedural win in the case it brought against German industrial giant Siemens over its alleged use of unlicensed software.… |
Notepad's new Markdown powers served with a side of remote code execution - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:31:03 GMT)Smug faces across all those who opposed the WordPad-ification of Microsoft's humble text editorJust months after Microsoft added Markdown support to Notepad, researchers have found the feature can be abused to achieve remote code execution (RCE).… |
Only one in five Euro datacenters AI-ready as builders battle land and labor blues - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:17:46 GMT)Report warns skills shortages and grid bottlenecks threaten to stall region's capacity pushOnly 20 percent of datacenters are considered AI-ready across Europe and the Middle East, despite the growing demand for infrastructure to accelerate AI processing.… |
River project swims against the Wayland tide with modular window management - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:00:12 GMT)Breaking a big hard problem up into smaller ones? That'll never catch onFOSDEM 2026 Isaac Freund's River compositor brings a little old-fashioned modularity and customizability to the brave new Wayland world.… |
Reviving a CIDCO MailStation – the last Z80 computer - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:15:12 GMT)If launching it was crazy in 1999, then what's trying to use it today?FOSDEM 2026 Michal Pleban knows his old kit inside out, and his talk on the CIDCO MailStation was one of the most interesting of FOSDEM for us – as well as the funniest.… |
Legacy systems blamed as ministers promise no repeat of Afghan breach - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:30:07 GMT)UK government grilled over progress made to prevent a second life-threatening leakLegacy IT issues are hampering key technical measures designed to prevent highly sensitive data leaks, UK government officials say.… |
As OpenAI and Claude fight over ads, Google says ‘show me the money’ - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 07:41:11 GMT)The Chocolate Factory isn't showing ads in Gemini, but AI Mode is fair gameAs OpenAI walks the advertising tightrope to balance revenue gains against credibility and safety, ad kingpin Google is roaring ahead to use AI to improve its advertising products.… |
Open Compute taps IOWN to help design distributed datacenters and a 'computing continuum' - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 03:46:58 GMT)Because AI won’t only run in Big Tech’s giant GPU garages, and won't tolerate slow connectionsThe Open Compute Project (OCP) wants to develop specs for distributed datacenters and has decided the all-optical Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) stack can make them possible.… |
Cisco looses Splunk to probe and tame its growing agentic menagerie - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:58:53 GMT)Just change the name to CAIsco already, ChuckCisco is on track to deliver its unified management tool Cloud Control later in 2026, but while its users wait for that moment it’s pumping out plenty more agentic tools to manage their networks – and make sure agents behave.… |
AI connector for Google Calendar makes convenient malware launchpad, researchers show - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:24:51 GMT)'Claude DXT's container falls noticeably short of what is expected from a sandbox'LayerX, a security company based in Tel Aviv, says it has identified a zero-click remote code execution vulnerability in Claude Desktop Extensions that can be triggered by processing a Google Calendar entry.… |
Market for gear that stops GPUs losing their cool is red hot as Trane gulps down LiquidStack - (pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:08:31 GMT)Great time to be a liquid cooling startupGPUs are so hot right now – literally and metaphorically – that they’re driving mergers and acquisitions in the datacenter cooling industry.… |
Microsoft's Valentine's gift to admins: 6 exploited zero-day fixes - (pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:10:32 GMT)Roses are red, violets are blue ... now get patchingWhat better way to say I love you than with an update? Attackers exploited a whopping six Microsoft bugs as zero-days prior to Redmond releasing software fixes on February's Patch Tuesday.… |
Microsoft touts far-off high-temperature superconducting tech for datacenter efficiency - (pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:45:48 GMT)SomedayMicrosoft wants you to know that it has found a new way of saving power at its datacenters using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) power delivery systems. And good news: it'll be possible ... someday.… |
AI can predict your future salary based on your photo, boffins claim - (pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:24:58 GMT)Academics look at problematic algorithm to inform regulatory discussionA picture is worth a thousand words or, perhaps, a hundred thousand dollars in extra salary. Academics claim that personality traits inferred using AI photo analysis can predict how depicted individuals will fare in the labor market.… |
Cadence heard you wanted some AI in your AI so it used AI to design an AI chip - (pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:31:43 GMT)Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Altera among the first to trial EDA giant's AI chip design agentThe idea of machines that can build even better machines sounds like sci-fi, but the concept is becoming a reality as companies like Cadence tap into generative AI to design and validate next-gen processors that also use AI.… |
AI agents spill secrets just by previewing malicious links - (pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:55:12 GMT)Zero-click prompt injection can leak data when AI agents meet messaging apps, researchers warnAI agents can shop for you, program for you, and, if you're feeling bold, chat for you in a messaging app. But beware: attackers can use malicious prompts in chat to trick an AI agent into generating a data-leaking URL, which link previews may fetch automatically.… |
