Microsoft is a national security threat, says ex-White House cyber policy director [Mon Apr 22 2024]

Hi {NAME}, Daily Headlines - 22 April 2024 ***************************************************************** Microsoft is a national security threat, says ex-White House cyber policy director With little competition at the goverment level, Windows giant has no incentive to make its systems safer ***************************************************************** Off-Prem * Oracle scores big win with Fujitsu Japan for its Alloy partner cloud But Big Red's $8 billion investment plan may not be all it seems On-Prem * Elon Musk's X to challenge Australian content takedown orders in court PLUS: Samsung in 'emergency mode'; Tim Cook's Asian charm tour; APAC AI spend to surge * Microsoft is a national security threat, says ex-White House cyber policy director With little competition at the goverment level, Windows giant has no incentive to make its systems safer * Tesla Cybertruck turns into world's most expensive brick after car wash Bulletproof? Is it waterproof? Ts&Cs say: 'Failure to put Cybertruck in Car Wash Mode may result in damage' * SpaceX, Northrop Grumman reportedly working on US spy sat program LEO rising in US military: Close encounters of the recon kind * AI energy draw from Chicago datacenters to rise ninefold No wonder industry is exploring nuclear as an alternative to electricity * A quarter of 5-7 year olds now use smartphones, says regulator Social media use and gaming show steep increases within the age group, after UK comms watchdog given new powers * Some smart meters won't be smart at all once 2/3G networks mothballed UK reckoning with prospect of millions of homes with obsolete hardware * Your trainee just took down our business and has no idea how or why Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the debrief meeting * Huawei's latest flagship smartphone contains no world-shaking silicon surprises Kirin 9010 SoC powering the Pura 70 is impressive, but doesn't indicate unforeseen prowess Security * Sacramento airport goes no-fly after AT&T internet cable snipped Police say this appears to be a 'deliberate act.' * WhatsApp, Threads, more banished from Apple App Store in China Still available in Hong Kong and Macau, for now * Cybercriminals threaten to leak all 5 million records from stolen database of high-risk individuals It’s the second time the World-Check list has fallen into the wrong hands * Germany cuffs alleged Russian spies over plot to bomb industrial and military targets Apparently an attempt to damage Ukraine's war effort Software * Microsoft teases deepfake AI that's too good to release VASA-1 framework can turn a still image and a cloned voice file into a plausible video of a person talking * Lightweight LXQt 2.0.0 updates to same toolkit as KDE Plasma 6 4-letter survivor's move to Qt 6 means that, love it or hate it, Wayland is looming * Google squashes AI teams together in push for fresh models You can leave your personal vendettas at home – we have work to do, Pichai warns * Qt Ubuntu 24.04 betas show that there's room to innovate Hot on the heels of Ubuntu Noble beta come the betas of the Qt-based remixes, with some interesting differences * UK unions publish AI bill to protect workers from 'risks and harms' of tech TUC questions government's approach so far Offbeat * A knotty problem: Boffins working on fuel-efficient trajectories for space travel Not yet the London Underground style efficient schematic we want, but it's a start * NASA solar sail to be Siriusly visible in orbit from Earth Look out for a new star next week * Unintended acceleration leads to recall of every Cybertruck produced so far That isn't what Tesla meant by Full Self-Driving * Wing Commander III changed how the copy hotkey works in Windows 95 No, boss, I'm not just playing a game. I'm testing compatibility. Honest ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This email was sent to {EMAIL} You can update your preferences here: or unsubscribe from this list: Situation Publishing Ltd, 315 Montgomery Street, 9th & 10th Floors, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA The Register and its contents are Copyright © 2024 Situation Publishing. All rights reserved. Find our Privacy Policy here: