Cyber Stories

We have handpicked cyber or IT stories of significance from the web. These have been shared below for your ready reference.

Headlines

Global semiconductor sales up 20.6% to record $53.1B as trade wars rage on

Powered by a robust recovery, global semiconductor sales recorded a 20.6 percent year-on-year jump in August to $53.1 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

The Americas led the way, with sales up 43.9 percent to $15.4 billion over last year to notch up what may be the highest on record for August, the SIA said. This comes on the back of swelling demand from sectors such as AI, cloud computing, and automotive. Read the full story.

Uncle Sam may force Google to sell Chrome browser, or Android OS

The US government has confirmed it is considering asking a judge to force Google to divest parts of its business as part of potential remedies in the antitrust case over its control of online searches.

In a proposed remedy framework [PDF] it filed yesterday, the Department of Justice’s antitrust division laid out the various ways it might tackle what it calls Google’s anticompetitive conduct in general search services and general search text advertising. The move follows the federal Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling in August that the company does have a monopoly in areas such as search on mobile phones, and has acted to maintain that monopoly. Read the full story.

Russian YouTuber reviews unannounced M4 MacBook Pro, but people don’t believe it’s real

Wylsacom, a Russian YouTube channel with almost 11.5 million subscribers, reviewed the yet-to-be-announced M4 MacBook Pro on the weekend. Official news about the latest Apple laptop should come out sometime this month, with a few leaks and speculations already doing the rounds.

Rumors suggest that the new device may be equipped with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. People are also speculating that the new MacBook Pro could have a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. Read the full story.

Morgan Stanley: Amazon could soon purge thousands of managers

According to investment bank Morgan Stanley, e-commerce giant Amazon might soon eliminate nearly 14,000 manager roles to save billions of dollars. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy already delivered some bad news to the company’s employees in mid-September when he said that workers would be required to be in the office five days a week starting in January.

The note from Jassy, shared with employees, said that the management had observed that it’s easier for the company’s employees to learn, model, practice, and strengthen Amazon’s culture if workers are back in the office. Read the full story.

Two British-Nigerian men sentenced over multimillion-dollar business email scam

Two British-Nigerian men were sentenced for serious business email compromise schemes in the US this week, netting them millions of dollars from local government entities, construction companies, and colleges.

Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo, 45, was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud campaigns affecting organizations in Texas and North Carolina. He was assisted in the latter scheme by Donald Ikenna Echeazu, 42, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $655,408.87 in restitution. Read the full story.

159 Automattic staff take severance offer and walk out over WP Engine feud

Matthew Mullenweg, CEO of WordPress biz Automattic and co-creator of the open source software, says he feels “much lighter” after 159 employees departed in the wake of his controversial attempt to pressure WP Engine to license trademarks the rival has used for years.

Mullenweg contends WP Engine, which like Automattic hosts WordPress websites, has benefited from the web publishing software without contributing sufficient labor or funds back to the community – obligations not included in the GPLv2 WordPress license, mind you. Read the full story.

Meta’s Zuckerberg Becomes World’s Second Richest Person. How He Overtook Amazon’s Bezos.

Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Jeff Bezos in terms of wealth. Zuckerberg’s wealth stands at around $206 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That puts him just ahead of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and almost $50 billion behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Zuckerberg’s wealth has risen by around $78 billion this year so far, the most of anyone in the list of the world’s 500 richest people tracked by the Index. Like most of the people on the list, the changes in Zuckerberg’s wealth are largely driven by his stock ownership. He owns about 13% of Meta. Read the full story.

OpenAI receives fresh money from Microsoft, Nvidia & Co

OpenAI receives 6.6 billion US dollars from investors in the form of a convertible bond. Converted to the entire company, this corresponds to a company valuation of 157 billion dollars. This is a good 80 percent more than the 86 billion dollars raised in the last financing round and makes the AI developer one of the most valuable, non-governmental and non-listed companies in the world.

The largest investor in this round is the New York-based venture capitalist Thrive Capital, which according to media reports is throwing 1.25 billion dollars into the pot. Microsoft has provided almost one billion dollars in fresh money. Read the full story.

Bitcoin founder allegedly unmasked: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

A new HBO documentary is causing a stir in the cryptocurrency scene. The filmmaker Cullen Hoback, known for his investigative work, claims to have solved the mystery surrounding the true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Previous attempts to identify Satoshi have been either unsuccessful or highly controversial. 

Satoshi controls an estimated 1.1 million Bitcoin, which corresponds to a current value of around 66 billion dollars. The revelation, which has been announced for next Wednesday at 2 a.m. Central European Time, could shake up the crypto world. This could have far reaching consequences on ransomware operators and cybersecurity too. Read the full story.

Tech layoffs worldwide 2020-2024, by quarter

Statista has shared an exhaustive report about tech layoffs during the last 4 years. The tech industry had a rough start to 2024. Technology companies worldwide saw a significant reduction in their workforce in the first quarter of 2024, with over 57 thousand employees being laid off. By the second quarter, layoffs impacted more than 43 thousand tech employees.

Layoffs in the technology sector started following an overhiring spree during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, companies expanded their workforce to meet increased demand for digital services during lockdowns. However, as lockdowns ended, economic uncertainties persisted and companies reevaluated their strategies, layoffs became inevitable, resulting in a record number of 263 thousand laid off employees in the global tech sector by the end of 2022.

Layoffs in the global market escalated dramatically in the first quarter of 2023, when the sector saw a staggering record high of 167.6 thousand employees losing their jobs. The impact of advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will impact layoff trends in the tech sector. Read the analysis on Statista.

Microsoft just dropped Drasi, and it could change how we handle big data

Microsoft has launched Drasi, a new open-source data processing system designed to simplify the detection and reaction to critical events in complex infrastructures. Mark Russinovich, CTO and Technical Fellow at Microsoft Azure described Drasi as “the birth of a new category of data processing system” in an interview with VentureBeat.

“We saw massive simplification of the architecture, just incredible developer productivity,” Russinovich said, highlighting Drasi’s potential to reduce the complexity of reactive systems. Drasi works by continuously monitoring data sources, evaluating incoming changes through predefined queries and executing automated reactions when specific conditions are met. Read the full story.

Cisco set to invest in CoreWeave at $23 bln valuation, Bloomberg News reports

Cisco Systems (CSCO.O), opens new tab is set to invest in CoreWeave, valuing the cloud services provider at $23 billion, according to a Bloomberg News report on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Nvidia-backed (NVDA.O) CoreWeave has partnerships with AI startups and competing cloud providers to build clusters designed to power AI workloads. CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator had discussed a secondary transaction that would allow existing shareholders to sell up to $500 million worth of shares, Bloomberg News reported in September. Read the full story.

Australian court upholds order for Musk’s X to pay $418,000 fine over anti-child abuse probe

An Australian court upheld an order on Friday for Elon Musk’s X to pay a fine of A$610,500 ($418,000) for failing to cooperate with a regulator’s request for information about anti-child-abuse practices. X had challenged the fine but the Federal Court of Australia ruled it was obliged to respond to a notice from the eSafety Commissioner, an internet safety regulator, seeking information about steps to address child sexual exploitation material on the platform.

This is not the first conflict between Musk and the Australian internet safety regulator. The eSafety Commissioner earlier this year ordered X to remove posts showing a bishop in Australia being stabbed during a sermon. Read the full story on Reuters.

Tesla Announces Recall Of 27,000 Cybertrucks Over Rear-View Camera Delay Issues

Tesla has announced a recall of over 27,000 Cybertrucks due to a problem with the rear-view camera. This issue causes delays in the camera image display, potentially affecting driver visibility and increasing crash risks. Tesla plans to address this problem with a software update. The recall impacts most Cybertrucks in the United States and is the largest for this electric truck model. Read the full story.

Google signs 12-year PPA for 435MW solar project

Google has signed a 12-year power purchase agreement to buy renewable energy from a 435MWdc solar project to be developed, owned, and operated by energyRe. The project will support Google’s 2030 goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where the company operates.

energyRe will supply electricity and renewable energy credits (RECs) generated from the solar project to Google to power the equivalent of more than 56,000 homes. The deal was facilitated through LEAP (LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process). Read the full story.

Amazon is hiring 250,000 people across the US as it heads into the holiday season

This year, Amazon is hiring for 250,000 full-time, part-time, and seasonal roles across our customer fulfillment and transportation operations in the U.S., and we’re excited to welcome new teammates across the country.

The details vary depending on the role, but all of these jobs offer great pay, flexible schedules, and access to a range of benefits. For those joining us in full-time roles, benefits include health care from the first day at Amazon and education programs like Career Choice. Read the full story.

Harvard students create smart glasses that instantly dox strangers

Two Harvard students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, have created a controversial project called I-XRAY, which combines facial recognition technology with smart glasses that not only can identify people but also retrieve their personal information – including their home address, phone number, and family members – in real-time.

After a photo is snapped, the system automatically visits the PimEyes website and uploads the photo. PimEyes provides the URLs where the matching photos can be found and I-XRAY then opens those URLs, which can be anything from yearbook photos to profiles on an employer’s website. Read the full story.

Brits hate how big tech handles their data, but can’t be bothered to do much about it

Fewer than one in five Brits report being happy with the way their personal data is handled by big tech companies, yet the furthest many will go is to reject optional cookies on the web. A little more than 60 percent of the 5,000 or so respondents to the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) survey say they rejected optional cookies when asked what measures they had taken to control their data.

It’s hardly a surprising finding, given that the presence of cookies on every website, seemingly every time you visit, is difficult to ignore. Perhaps the fact that around 40 percent of people never declined the optional cookies at least once is the more shocking finding. Read the full story.

A Bank of America outage showed customers blanked-out account balances

Some customers reported problems accessing their bank accounts on Wednesday, with the balances showing $0 or “—-” instead of what should be there.

“Some mobile and online banking clients experienced an issue accessing their accounts and balance information earlier today,” writes Bank of America media relations executive Matt Card in an email to The Verge. “These technology issues have been fully resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience.” Read the full story.

Broadcom tried to hit AT&T with a 1,050% price increase for VMware products

AT&T recently filed a lawsuit against Broadcom over its VMware licensing agreement, asserting that it is entitled to two more years of guaranteed support. AT&T is resorting to legal action in an effort to compel Broadcom to comply with the service agreement it signed for using VMware products. 

The technology company, has made it clear that it aims to transition its recently acquired virtualization products into a subscription-only model. This new approach would require large companies to spend significantly more to access premium cloud-based tools and technology. Read the full story.

As data center usage heats up, Submer raises $55.5M to cool things down

With traditional cooling methods like air and water failing to keep up with datacenter demands, startups with new approaches are seeing their stars rise. Among them is Barcelona-based Submer, which just raised $55.5 million at a valuation of half a billion dollars to scale its business: a system where entire racks are submerged in, and operate out of, vessels filled with proprietary, biodegradable, non-conducting coolant that co-founder Pol Valls likened to an “amniotic fluid.”

A research paper from Goldman Sachs from May noted that on average, a ChatGPT search “needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search.” The paper predicted that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030. Other researchers have pointed to the “growing carbon footprint” of AI and the billions of cubic meters of water that are needed to cool these data centers. Read the full story.

X Coughs Up the Cash to Be Available in Brazil Again

Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice has ruled that the suspension levied on X can be lifted once the social media platform has paid a final fine. The ban was put in place at the end of August and led to a furious tirade by X’s owner, Elon Musk.

Brazil’s G1 Globo has reported that X has to pay a new fine of 10 million reals (about $2 million) for two additional days of non-compliance with the court’s orders. X’s legal representative in Brazil, Rachel de Oliveira, is also required to pay a fine of 300,000 reals.” Read the full story.

Windows 11 24H2 is out and ready for download: Here’s everything you need to know

Microsoft has officially rolled out the Windows 11, version 24H2, also known as the Windows 11 2024 Update. The release will be available through various updates, including Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Windows Update for Business, and more.

The 24H2 release will be supported for 36 months for enterprise and education users. The initial release of Windows 11, will reach the end of support in 2025. Read the full story.

Microsoft Won’t Force Five Day Return to Office

Forget Amazon and to hell with Dell. Microsoft has decided that – for the time being at least – it does not intend to instill a mandatory five day per week return to office (RTO) policy.

The tech giant’s reassurances to staff that it isn’t about to end the option for hybrid working flies in the face of decisions made by a number of the industry’s biggest players, with Amazon ending hybrid working and demanding staff return to office in a decision announced two weeks ago. Microsoft has stopped short of guaranteeing that it won’t take more drastic steps in future, however, saying that hybrid working will remain in place all the while productivity levels remain. Read the full story.

US port strike likely to snarl tech supply chains

Dockworkers at American ports from Maine to Texas have gone on strike, and experts are warning it won’t be long before the tech sector feels a supply chain pinch that could easily stretch into the beginning of next year. 

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) went on strike at midnight on October 1. The union has demanded a $5 an hour increase in wages for each year of the planned six-year contract between it and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents ports and shipping companies on these coasts. Read the full story.

Microsoft lifts the price of System Center by ten percent

Microsoft has revealed that the 2025 edition of its System Center management tool will debut on November 1st, at prices ten percent higher that it charged for its predecessor. “The new pricing supports the continued development and improvement of System Center, ensuring it remains a leading solution for managing complex IT environments,” states a Microsoft post.

“The System Center 2025 licensing model for Standard and Datacenter will be the same as 2022 with server and client management licenses,” Microsoft’s post states. “Licenses are required only for the endpoints being managed. No additional licenses are needed for customers with SQL Server Standard Edition.” Read the full story.