Latest News
Last updated 05 Mar, 12:26 AM
BBC News
US sub sinks Iranian warship in Indian Ocean, Hegseth says - Sri Lanka's navy says around 140 people are feared missing after a military vessel went down off its southern coast.
Video of US torpedo hitting Iranian warship released by Pentagon - US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the US military has sunk "an Iranian warship" in the Indian Ocean with a torpedo.
'Every day feels like a month': Iranians describe life under 'constant' US-Israeli strikes - Iranians are coping with daily strikes, internet blackouts, and security crackdowns - all while trying to stay in touch with loved ones.
How depleted weapons stockpiles could affect the Iran conflict - Weapons stocks will not alone decide the outcome of this conflict, but it's certainly a significant factor, writes the BBC's Jonathan Beale.
Satellite images show Iranian navy and nuclear sites hit by US-Israeli strikes - US-Israeli strikes have destroyed at least 11 Iranian naval vessels, images reviewed by BBC Verify show.
The Register
'Hundreds' of Iranian hacking attempts have hit surveillance cameras since the missile strikes - Attack infrastructure attributed to 'several Iran-nexus threat actors' Multiple Iranian hacking crews have been targeting internet-connected surveillance cameras across Israel and other Middle Eastern countries since the war started on February 28, according to Check Point security researchers. …
Malware-laced OpenClaw installers get Bing AI search boost - Think before you download OpenClaw, the AI agent that can manage just about anything, is risky all by itself, but now fake installers for it are wreaking havoc. Users who searched Bing’s AI results for “OpenClaw Windows” were directed to a malicious GitHub repository that delivered information stealers and GhostSocks onto their machines.…
HR may have to cajole and soothe reluctant employees to get them to use AI - Employees need guidance and support if companies really want to commit to AI adoption If you buy AI, employees will come and take a look, but they won't necessarily change the way they work. For that, you may have to get human resources involved.…
Apple's budget-friendly MacBook Neo is bursting with color and compromise - Cupertino grabs an aging A18 Pro from parts bin to power its latest attempt at an entry-level MacBook You'll soon be able to get a MacBook that's cheaper than many budget PCs. Apple on Wednesday unveiled the MacBook Neo, a $599 exercise in cost cutting powered by the same silicon as an iPhone 16 Pro.…
AI doctor's assistant is easily swayed to change prescriptions, give bad medical advice - Spread false medical info, supersize drug orders, and more! A healthcare AI with the power to manage prescriptions is rather open to mind-altering suggestions, according to security experts. …
New Scientist - Home
Sea levels around the world are much higher than we thought - Most coastal risk assessments have underestimated current sea levels, meaning tens of millions of people face losing their homes to rising waters earlier than expected
Top predators still prowled the seas after the biggest mass extinction - The end-Permian extinction 252 million years ago wiped out over 80 per cent of marine species, but many ecosystems still had complex food webs despite the losses
Claude AI: Why are there so many internet outages? - AI chatbot Claude going down is just one example of a recent IT outage. One of the main vulnerabilities of the modern internet is to blame for the growing number of incidents
How worried should you be about microplastics? - Microplastics have been found accumulating everywhere from our water to our body tissues, but many of the claims have come under fresh scrutiny. Chelsea Whyte cuts through the research to tell you whether you really need to worry
Phantom codes could help quantum computers avoid errors - A method for making quantum computers less error-prone could let them run complex programs such as simulations of materials more efficiently, thus making them more useful
Hacker News
MacBook Neo - Comments
Building a new Flash - Comments
Something is afoot in the land of Qwen - Comments
Humans 40k yrs ago developed a system of conventional signs - Comments
It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country (1921) - Comments
Slashdot
Google Ends Its 30% App Store Fee, Welcomes Third-Party App Stores - Google is eliminating its traditional 30% Play Store fee and introducing lower commissions, while at the same time allowing alternative billing systems and making it easier for third-party app stores to operate on Android. The changes stem largely from Google's settlement with Epic Games. Engadget reports: The biggest change is to how Google will collect fees from developers publishing apps on Android. Rather than take its standard 30 percent cut of in-app purchases through the Play Store, Google is lowering its cut to 20 percent, and in some cases 15 percent for new installs of apps from developers participating in its new App Experience program or updated Google Play Games Level Up program. Those changes extend to subscriptions, too, where the company's cut is lowering to 10 percent. For Google's billing system, the company says developers in the UK, US, or European Economic Area (EEA) will now be charged a five percent fee and "a market-specific rate" in other regions. Of course, for anyone trying to avoid those fees, using alternatives to Google's billing system is getting easier. Google says that developers will be able to offer alternative billing systems alongside its own or "guide users outside of their app to their own websites for purchases." [...] Epic is ultimately interested in getting people to use the mobile version of its Epic Games Store, and Google's announcement also includes details on how third-party app stores can come to Android. Third-party app stores will be able to apply to the company's new "Registered App Stores" program to see if they meet "certain quality and safety benchmarks." If they do, they'll be able to take advantage of a streamlined installation interface in Android. Participating in the program is optional, and users will still be able to sideload alternative app stores that aren't part of the program, but Google clearly has a preference. [...] Google says that its updated fee structure will come to the EEA, the UK and the US by June 30, Australia by September 30, Korea and Japan by December 31 and the entire world by September 30, 2027. Meanwhile, the company's updated Google Play Games Level Up program and new App Experience program will launch in the EEA, the UK, the US and Australia on September 30, before hitting the remaining regions alongside the updated fee structure. For any developers interested in offering their own app store, Google says it'll launch its Registered App Stores program "with a version of a major Android release" before the end of the year. According to the company, the program will be available in other regions first before it comes to the US. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sony Pulls Back From PlayStation Games on PC - Sony is reportedly abandoning its recent push to bring major PlayStation games to PC and will instead keep most single-player titles exclusive to the PlayStation 5. According to Bloomberg, the shift back toward console exclusivity may be driven by weaker PC sales and concerns about diluting the PlayStation brand. From the report: Online games such as Marathon and Marvel Tokon will still be released across multiple platforms, but single-player titles such as last year's samurai hit Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming action game Saros will remain exclusive to PlayStation 5, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to talk publicly about the company's strategy. The people cautioned that things could change in the future due to the unpredictable nature of the video-game industry and that Sony's plans are constantly shifting. But in recent weeks PlayStation scrapped plans to bring Ghost of Yotei and other internally developed games to PC. Two games made by external developers but published by PlayStation, Death Stranding 2 and the upcoming Kena: Scars of Kosmora, are still planned for release on PC this year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Computer Scientists Caution Against Internet Age-Verification Mandates - fjo3 shares a report from Reason Magazine: Effective January 1, 2027, providers of computer operating systems in California will be required to implement age verification. That's just part of a wave of state and national laws attempting to limit children's access to potentially risky content without considering the perils such laws themselves pose. Now, not a moment too soon, over 400 computer scientists have signed an open letter warning that the rush to protect children from online dangers threatens to introduce new risks including censorship, centralized power, and loss of privacy. They caution that age-verification requirements "might cause more harm than good." The group of computer scientists from around the world cautions that "those deciding which age-based controls need to exist, and those enforcing them gain a tremendous influence on what content is accessible to whom on the internet." They add that "this influence could be used to censor information and prevent users from accessing services." "Regulating the use of VPNs, or subjecting their use to age assurance controls, will decrease the capability of users to defend their privacy online. This will not only force regular users to leave a larger footprint on the network, but will leave a number of at-risk populations unprotected, such as journalists, activists, or domestic abuse victims." It continues: "We note that we do not believe that trying to regulate VPN use for non-compliant users would be any more effective than trying to forbid the use of end-to-end encrypted communication for criminals. Secure cryptography is widely available and can no longer be put back into a box." "If minors or adults are deplatformed via age-related bans, they are likely to migrate to find similar services," warn the scientists. "Since the main platforms would all be regulated, it is likely that they would migrate to fringe sites that escape regulation." With data on everyone collected in order to restrict the activites of minors, data abuses and privacy risks increase. "This in itself increases privacy risks, with data being potentially abused by the provider itself or its subcontractors, or third parties that get access to it, e.g., after a data breach, like the 70K users that had their government ID photos leaked after appealing age assessment errors on Discord." Instead of mandated age restrictions, the letter urges lawmakers to consider the dangers and suggest regulating social media algorithms instead. They also recommend "support for parents to locally prevent access to non-age-appropriate content or apps, without age-based control needing to be implemented by service providers." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Vehicle Tire Pressure Sensors Enable Silent Tracking - Longtime Slashdot reader linuxwrangler writes: Dark Reading reports that a team of researchers has determined that signals from tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs), required in U.S. cars since 2007, can be used to track the presence, type, weight, and driving pattern of vehicles. The researchers report (PDF) that the TPMS data, which includes unique sensor IDs, is sent in clear text without authentication and can be intercepted 40-50 meters from a vehicle using devices costing $100. "Researchers have discovered that most TPMS sensors transmit a unique identifier in clear text that never changes during the lifetime of the tire," the researchers pointed out. "This unencrypted wireless communication makes the signals susceptible to eavesdropping and potential tracking by any third party in proximity to the car." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Emails To Outlook.com Rejected By Faulty Or Overzealous Blocking Rules - Microsoft spent much of the past week rejecting legitimate emails sent to Outlook.com, Live, and Hotmail accounts due to what appears to be overly aggressive IP reputation filtering or faulty blocklist rules. According to The Register, many senders received 550 errors claiming their networks were blocked, preventing delivery of invoices, notifications, and authentication emails. From the report: A block list is a good thing. It helps stem the flow of spam from networks or addresses associated with junk email. However, the confusing thing for our reader is that his company was not on Microsoft's naughty step for email. A look at Microsoft's Smart Network Data Service (SNDS) showed no issues with the IP. "We're also a member of their JMRP (Junk Mail Reporting Program)," our reader added, "which is intended to inform us when people are reporting spam sent from our IPs - except, we never get any reports." The problem worsened in February. On Microsoft's support forums, users began to complain about similar issues as the IP net presumably widened. One wrote: "We are currently experiencing a critical and recurring email delivery issue affecting recipients at outlook.com, live.com, hotmail.com, and msn.com," and provided a copy of an error that suggested the mail server has been "temporarily rate limited due to IP reputation." The user drily noted, "Although the error indicates rate limiting, in practice no emails are being delivered." A large number of users, ranging from the administrator of a server sending automated notifications on behalf of Estonian Public Libraries to an email provider for healthcare professionals, chimed in to confirm they too were having delivery problems and Microsoft support was not helpful. [...] Unsurprisingly, our reader spoke on condition of anonymity - nobody wants to be the ISP that has to say, "Yeah, we can deliver your email anywhere but Outlook.com" to customers. We asked Microsoft to comment, but other than acknowledging our questions, the company did not respond further. Read more of this story at Slashdot.