Cyber Security

To keep its App Store appealing to developers after they gain the right to distribute apps through their own channels when the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) comes into force, Apple is introducing a pilot test of “contingent pricing.” This means that developers can bundle subscriptions for two apps at a discounted price in the…

Security researchers, Arctic Wolf Labs, have reported that victims of Royal and Akira ransomware are being targeted in follow-on extortion attacks. In these follow-on attacks (starting in October 2023), two of which were documented by Arctic Wolf Labs, the threat actors falsely claimed they were trying to help victim organisations. They even claimed they would…

A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that almost one-third of electricity demand in Ireland is expected to come from data-centres by 2026. Doubling Of Electricity Demand  The IEA’s ‘Electricity 2024 – Analysis and forecast to 2026’ highlights how having one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU (12.5 per cent)…

Following many legal challenges to AI companies about copyrighted content being scraped and used to train their AI models (without consent or payment), a new certification for copyright-compliant AI has been launched. The Issue  As highlighted in the recent case of the New York Times suing OpenAI over the alleged training of its AI on…

New research from Gartner has predicted that global IT spending this year will reach $5 trillion and IT spending growth will be more than double that of 2023. A First – Spending More On IT Than Communications  In its IT spending forecast, Gartner predicts that the massive $5 trillion global spend means that spending on IT…

Work has started on Google’s first UK data centre which will cost $1 billion (£790m), will add to Google’s 27 data centres worldwide, and will support its move into AI. Crucial Compute Capacity  The data centre is being built on a 33-acre site at Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. In addition to the construction and technical jobs…

A new review of existing research, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), warns that video gamers who are listening to high-intensity sound levels for long periods of time may be risking permanent hearing loss and tinnitus. Overlooked Area  Whereas headphones, earbuds, and music venues have been recognised as sources of potentially unsafe sound levels,…

It’s been reported that The European Commission is now seeking feedback from Apple’s rivals and customers over concessions agreed by Apple relating to its tap-and-go mobile payment systems, based on the independent technology called Near-Field Communication (NFC). Following an antitrust investigation and the threat of a fine, Apple had agreed to open up these systems…

AI company Anthropic has published a research paper highlighting how large language models (LLMs) can be subverted so that at a certain point, they start emitting maliciously crafted source code. For example, this could involve training a model to write secure code when the prompt states that the year is 2024 but insert exploitable code…

A new AI tool called GNoME from Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab has reportedly discovered and contributed nearly 380,000 new compounds to the Materials Project, the open-access database founded at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). GNoME  The Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNoME), is an AI-powered deep learning tool and…