Software developers who ship buggy, insecure code are the true baddies in the cyber crime story, Jen Easterly, boss of the US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has argued. From a report: "The truth is: Technology vendors are the characters who are building problems" into their products, which then "open the doors for villains to attack their victims," declared Easterly during a Wednesday keynote address at Mandiant's mWise conference. Easterly also implored the audience to stop "glamorizing" crime gangs with fancy poetic names. How about "Scrawny Nuisance" or "Evil Ferret," Easterly suggested. Even calling security holes "software vulnerabilities" is too lenient, she added. This phrase "really diffuses responsibility. We should call them 'product defects,'" Easterly said. And instead of automatically blaming victims for failing to patch their products quickly enough, "why don't we ask: Why does software require so many urgent patches? The truth is: We need to demand more of technology vendors."

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Meta and Apple have increasingly been rivals, and Mark Zuckerberg only expects their competition to intensify in the coming years. From a report: "I think in a lot of ways we're like the opposite of Apple," Zuckerberg said. "Clearly, their stuff has worked really well too. They take this approach that's like, 'We're going to take a long time, we're going to polish it, we're going to put it out,' and maybe for the stuff that they're doing that works, maybe that just fits with their culture." Zuckerberg went on to say Meta approaches product releases differently, saying, "there are a lot of conversations that we have internally where you're almost at the line of being embarrassed at what you put out." "You want to really have a culture that values shipping and getting things out and getting feedback more than needing always to get great positive accolades from people when you put stuff out," he continued. He also took the opportunity to critique Apple's approach. "If you want to wait until you get praised all the time, you're missing a bunch of the time when you could've learned a bunch of useful stuff and then incorporated that into the next version you're going to ship," he said. [...] Zuck said one of his goals for the next 10 or 15 years is "to build the next generation of open platforms and have the open platforms win."

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An anonymous reader shares a report: CERN, the European particle-physics collaboration that operates the Large Hadron Collider, will expel hundreds of Russian-affiliated scientists from its laboratories. The Geneva-based organization decided to cut ties with Moscow after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, ending nearly 60 years of collaboration, and the agreements are now lapsing.

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Deadly attacks using booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon has revealed significant vulnerabilities in the supply chains for older electronic devices. The incident, which killed 37 people and injured about 3,000, has sparked investigations across Europe into the origins of the weaponized gadgets. Taiwan-based Gold Apollo blamed a European licensee for the compromised pagers, while Japan's Icom could not verify the authenticity of the walkie-talkies bearing its name. Both companies denied manufacturing the deadly components in their home countries. Industry executives say older electronics from Asia often lack the tight supply chain controls of newer products, making it difficult to trace their origins. Counterfeiting, surplus inventories, and complex manufacturing deals further complicate the issue.

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Ukraine has banned use of Telegram on official devices used by state officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday. Reuters: The National Security and Defence Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, presented the Council with evidence of Russian special services' ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement. But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council's centre on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones. Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But Ukrainian security officials had repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war. Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he has sold.

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The data centers that train all the large language models behind AI consume unimaginable amounts of energy, and the stakes are high for big tech companies to ensure they have enough power to run those plants. That's why Microsoft is now throwing its weight behind nuclear power. From a report: The tech giant on Friday signed a major deal with nuclear plant owner Constellation Energy to restart its closed Three Mile Island plant by 2028 to power its data centers. The Constellation plant, infamous for melting down in 1979, closed in 2019 after failing to garner enough demand for its energy amid competition with cheaper alternatives like natural gas, and solar and wind power. Constellation said it plans to spend $1.6 billion to revive its reactor, pending regulatory approval. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft agreed to purchase all of the power from the reactor over the next 20 years, a Constellation spokesperson told TechCrunch. Once restored, the reactor promises a capacity of 835 megawatts.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After 20 years, it's now possible for solo players to finish storylines in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft that previously required a group to do an intensive raid. That's thanks to "Story Mode," a new raid difficulty that was added for the final wing of the first raid of the recently released The War Within expansion. Over the years, developer Blizzard has expanded the difficulty options for raids to meet various players and communities where they are in terms of play styles. The top difficulty is Mythic, where the semi-pro hardcore guilds compete. Below that is Heroic, where serious, capital-G gamers coordinate with friends in weekly raid schedules to progress. Then there's Normal, which still requires some coordination but isn't nearly as challenging and can typically be completed within a few tries by a pick-up group. The most accessible difficulty is Raid Finder, where you're matched with random players automatically to complete a vastly easier version of a raid. Now Story Mode has been added to the mix, and it's even easier than Raid Finder. In Story Mode, you fight only the raid's final boss, which has been scaled back in stats and complexity so that it's beatable for a single player or a very small group of friends. Challenging encounter mechanics have been removed, and the whole fight has been retooled to focus exclusively on the narrative aspects. There are some rewards, but they're not the same as those on more difficult raids; the goal was to avoid cheapening the experience for those who do want to go all the way. So far, Story Mode is available exclusively for the newest raid, which is called Nerub-ar Palace. It hasn't been made available for other encounters yet, but Blizzard has hinted that this could be the long-term goal.

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Amazon is joining the Motion Picture Association as its seventh member, alongside Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix. Engadget reports: Amazon was already involved with the MPA, having worked with its Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, an anti-piracy coalition, as a governing board member since 2017. MGM (which Amazon bought in 2022) was previously an MPA member from 1928 until 2005. Amazon's involvement with the MPA speaks to the foothold that the company has in entertainment. The fact that Amazon and Netflix are both members also highlights the major influence of streaming over the industry at large. "The MPA is the global voice for a growing and evolving industry, and welcoming Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios to our ranks will broaden our collective policymaking and content protection efforts on behalf of our most innovative and creative companies," Charles Rivkin, MPA chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "MPA studios fuel local economies, drive job creation, enrich cultures and bolster communities everywhere they work. With Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios among our roster of extraordinary members, the MPA will have an even larger voice for the world's greatest storytellers."

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Indian filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is ditching human musicians for artificial intelligence, saying he'll use only AI-generated tunes in future projects, a move that underscores AI's growing reach in creative industries. From a report: The filmmaker and screenwriter, known for popular Bollywood movies including Company, Rangeela, Sarkar, and Satya has launched a venture, called RGV Den Music, that will only feature music generated from AI apps including Suno and Udio, he told TechCrunch. Varma said he will use the AI-generated music in all his projects, including movies. The entire background score on his new feature movie, called Saree, is also AI-generated, he said. In an interview, Varma urged artists to embrace AI rather than resist it. "Eventually, the music comes from your thoughts. You need to have clarity on what you want the app to produce. It's the taste that will matter," he said.

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A small asteroid, 2024 PT5, will temporarily become a mini-moon for Earth, orbiting in a horseshoe shape from September 29 to November 25, 2024. CBS News reports: Researchers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, an asteroid monitoring system funded by NASA, spotted the asteroid using an instrument in Sutherland, South Africa and labeled it 2024 PT5. Scientists from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid have tracked the asteroid's orbit for 21 days and determined its future path. 2024 PT5 is from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which orbits the sun, according to their study published in Research Notes of the AAs. But Earth's gravitational pull will draw 2024 PT5 towards it and, much like our moon, it will orbit our planet -- but only for 56.6 days. 2024 PT5, which is larger than some of the other mini-moons, will also return to Earth's orbit -- in 2055. [...] The study's lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com the mini-moon will be too small to see with amateur telescopes or binoculars but professional astronomers with stronger tools will be able to spot it.

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You may call it equity, or equinox or whatever woke term you like but you can't sugarcoat what those of us in the North know: the Southern Hemisphere is stealing the very essence of our dwindling days. Sucking out the insolation like a milkshake and slurping it all across the equator.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!

Meanwhile. Steven B. reminded us of an Error'd I'm pretty sure we've seen before, but it's too dark in here to find now. "I think Microsoft need a bit more tuning on their Office365 anti-spam filters," he suggests.

 

Jan confirms that broken test-in-production data will never die. "I hope the size of the content of the package is in fact 200mm x 78mm x 61mm, as this is what I ordered."

 

Jozsef thinks the Wise fees don't add up, claiming "The email explains why they chose this amount, but it's still funny, and technically wrong." I agree it's funny but I don't see what's wrong. Is Jozsef arguing that lowering a cost by 0% is not actually lowering anything? I see his position but I consider lowering by 0% to be simply the degenerate case of lowering, just as highering a thing by 0% is a degenerate use of antonyms."

 

Karun R. thinks this form is funny, snickering "When is optional not optional ? Wont let me submit until I entered something in the field."

 

Finally Mike just keeps tilting at this old windmill: "Is encoding finally fixed in the new version? 😂"

 

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Walmart customers will soon have the option to pay directly from their bank accounts with instant transfers for online purchases. The enhanced feature is a flash point in the escalating tensions between merchants and the card networks setting the fees for payment processing. The world's largest retailer has offered pay-by-bank through Walmart Pay since earlier this year. Until now, the transactions were akin to digital checks and took roughly three days to finalize when being processed through The Automated Clearing House, the same network often used for bill payments or paycheck deposits. Soon, customers opting for pay-by-bank transactions will see the purchase reflected in their bank account balance instantly -- and Walmart will receive the funds immediately. [...] Walmart's upgraded pay-by-bank offering will be rolled out in 2025. The transactions will occur over bank technology provider Fiserv's NOW Network, which integrates with The Clearing House's Real Time Payments network and the Federal Reserve's FedNow. Until now, large retailers hesitated to launch real time payment options because many banks were not connected to an instant settlement system, meaning their customers would not be able to use the product. NOW Network aims to connect to as many banks as possible to reach 100% of deposit accounts by combining its own network with RTP and FedNow. The instant pay-by-bank product will be available for online checkout on Walmart.com. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer already has customers set up a profile when they shop online. If they opt to add pay-by-bank as a payment option on their profile, they will enter their bank login credentials to connect their account. Fiserv's AllData platform connects with their bank clients and vendors including Plaid, MX, Akoya and Finicity to link and authenticate consumer accounts. With this instant pay-by-bank product, consumers will avoid stacked pending transactions, which can open them up to the risk of overdraft or non-sufficient fund fees from their bank. "When the transaction processes as a real time payment, customers get immediate access to see that payment come through, I see it hit my account and I can properly budget," said Jamie Henry, vice president of emerging payments at Walmart. "It's not as if I've got this phantom payment out there that's going to take place a couple days down the road."

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Longtime Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a report from Politico: The creator of a video that used artificial intelligence to imitate Kamala Harris is suing the state of California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws restricting the use of digitally altered political "deepfakes," alleging First and 14th Amendment violations. Christopher Kohls, who goes by the name "Mr Reagan" on X, has been at the center of a debate over the use of AI-generated material in elections since he posted the video in July, calling it a parody of a Harris campaign ad. It features AI-generated clips mimicking Harris' voice and saying she's the "ultimate diversity hire." The video was shared by X owner Elon Musk without calling it parody and attracted the ire of Newsom, who vowed to ban such content. The suit (PDF), filed Tuesday in federal court, seeks permanent injunctions against the laws. One of the laws in question, the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act, specifies that it does not apply to satire or parody content. It requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive, digitally altered media during certain periods before or after an election. Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement that Kohls had already labeled the post as a parody on X. "Requiring them to use the word 'parody' on the actual video avoids further misleading the public as the video is shared across the platform," Gardon said. "It's unclear why this conservative activist is suing California. This new disclosure law for election misinformation isn't any more onerous than laws already passed in other states, including Alabama."

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Disney plans to transition away from using Slack as its companywide collaboration tool after a hacking group leaked over a terabyte of data from the platform. Many teams at Disney have already begun moving to other enterprise-wide tools, with the full transition expected later this year. Reuters reports: Hacking group NullBulge had published data from thousands of Slack channels at the entertainment giant, including computer code and details about unreleased projects, the Journal reported in July. The data spans more than 44 million messages from Disney's Slack workplace communications tool, WSJ reported earlier this month. The company had said in August it was investigating an unauthorized release of over a terabyte of data from one of its communication systems.

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Residents of California can now store their driver's license or state ID in Apple or Google Wallet, according to an announcement today. Apple also shared the news. TechCrunch reports: Californians with an ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app can use their mobile devices to present their ID in person at select TSA security checkpoints and businesses. They can also use the app to verify their age or identity in select apps. Other states that already support digital driver's licenses and state IDs include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, and Ohio.

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Young corals bred using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and planted in reefs around the US, Mexico and the Caribbean have surprised scientists, after most survived last year's record marine heatwave, while older corals struggled. From a report: A study has found that 90% of the young IVF-created corals surveyed remained healthy and colourful, holding on to the algae that live within them and supply them with nutrition. In contrast, only about a quarter of older non-IVF corals remained healthy. The rest, including large colonies that may have lived for centuries, were either bleached by the heat -- expelling the algae from their tissues and turning white -- or paled, expelling some of the algae. Some died in the heatwave before the survey was conducted. Dr Margaret Miller, lead author and research director at Secore International, a reef conservation organisation, said: "[The heatwave] was a horrible time. But I was impressed and surprised that the data came out with such an extreme pattern." The young corals were bred over the past five years using a version of IVF developed by Secore. Divers collected coral spawn, which was used to fertilise eggs in the laboratory. The resultant baby corals were then planted on reefs across the Caribbean to form colonies. Most coral restoration efforts have historically focused on fragmentation techniques -- where corals are broken into smaller pieces and transplanted to a new location. Rather than producing exact clones, as fragmentation does, breeding corals by IVF increased the genetic diversity, giving them a higher chance of adapting to heat over time. "Natural selection back in the reef environment will choose the best ones," said Miller. The 771 young corals in the study -- a fraction of the thousands bred each year by Secore and partner institutions -- live in restored reefs off Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the US Virgin Islands, and the Dutch Caribbean territories of Bonaire and Curacao.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Pocketpair has responded to the lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. The studio that developed Palworld, the game at the heart of the suit, issued a statement early this morning saying it doesn't know what patents it violated. "At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details," the statement read. According to Nintendo's press release, the reason for the lawsuit has to do with Pocketpair allegedly infringing on multiple as yet undisclosed patents. The details of the lawsuit have not yet been made public, so we do not yet know which patents, and according to Pocketpair's statement, it doesn't know, either.

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Microsoft has launched a new Windows app that serves as a hub for streaming Windows environments from services like Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop. However, it's limited to Microsoft work and school accounts with "no signs that Microsoft plans to support consumer accounts," notes The Verge's Tom Warren. From the report: This new unified app has been in testing for nearly a year, and includes a customizable home screen, multi-monitor support, and USB redirection so you can use local devices like webcams, storage devices, and printers as if they were plugged directly into a cloud PC. This Windows app is limited to Microsoft work and school accounts, as it's primarily designed for existing users of Remote Desktop clients for Windows and other operating systems to move to. Microsoft has had similar apps for connecting to PCs remotely in Windows for decades, including the Remote Desktop Connection app that still ships as part of Windows 11. These apps, including the new Windows one, are useful for connecting to work PCs from a personal laptop or PC. The Windows app is available from the Microsoft Store and Apple App Store. An Android version enters public preview mode today.

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Joe_Dragon shares a report: Four more large Internet service providers told the US Supreme Court this week that ISPs shouldn't be forced to aggressively police copyright infringement on broadband networks. While the ISPs worry about financial liability from lawsuits filed by major record labels and other copyright holders, they also argue that mass terminations of Internet users accused of piracy "would harm innocent people by depriving households, schools, hospitals, and businesses of Internet access." The legal question presented by the case "is exceptionally important to the future of the Internet," they wrote in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday. The amici curiae brief was filed by Altice USA (operator of the Optimum brand), Frontier Communications, Lumen (aka CenturyLink), and Verizon. The brief supports cable firm Cox Communications' attempt to overturn its loss in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Sony. Cox petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case last month. Sony and other music copyright holders sued Cox in 2018, claiming it didn't adequately fight piracy on its network and failed to terminate repeat infringers. A US District Court jury in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in December 2019 that Cox must pay $1 billion in damages to the major record labels. Cox won a partial victory when the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit vacated the $1 billion verdict, finding that Cox wasn't guilty of vicarious infringement because it did not profit directly from infringement committed by users of its cable broadband network. But the appeals court affirmed the jury's finding of willful contributory infringement and ordered a new damages trial.

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Cruise is returning to the streets of Sunnyvale and Mountain View for the first time since it paused operations in the Bay Area after a robotaxi struck a pedestrian in October 2023. From a report: The company said Thursday that it will put "several" vehicles driven by humans in the two cities that will initially perform mapping. The company said it hopes to progress to supervised AV testing of up to five robotaxis "later this fall." "Resuming testing in the Bay Area is an important step forward as we continue to work closely with California regulators and local stakeholders," the company said in a post on X. "This will allow our local employees to engage directly with our product as they refine and improve our tech through R&D." The decision to bring Cruise's autonomous Chevy Bolts back to the Bay Area comes just a few months after the company reached a settlement with California's Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). As part of that deal, Cruise paid a $112,500 fine for failing to provide full information about the October 2023 crash.

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