The municipal service provider Südwestfalen-IT is restructuring its leadership a year after a severe cyberattack. Two former managers are leaving due to allegations of neglecting basic security measures. However, they are not facing claims for damages due to gross negligence. Meanwhile, Google is expanding its Gemini Advanced, allowing the AI chatbot to remember personal user information for future conversations. This feature is initially available only to Google’s AI subscribers, raising privacy concerns.
In Germany, users have the right to prevent account blocks on social networks if they were not given a chance to respond beforehand. A court ruled in favor of a user whose political comment on a local election was deleted by Facebook, resulting in a temporary ban. The court emphasized that Facebook had no right to delete the comment without prior user consultation.
The Indian competition authority fined Meta for data exchange practices among its platforms, including WhatsApp. Meta plans to appeal the decision. The fine was imposed due to antitrust violations related to updated terms and privacy policies requiring users to agree to data sharing with other Meta companies.
Intel introduces new desktop PC processors with groundbreaking technology. The Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200S features multiple chiplets and improved core architecture, offering more performance per watt than previous models. However, the question remains whether they are significantly faster and worth upgrading compared to AMD’s Ryzen 9000.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius suspects sabotage after two data cables in the Baltic Sea were intentionally damaged. He stated, “No one believes these cables were accidentally cut.”
Through a deal with Epic, the first two Unreal games can now be played for free and authentically on Windows 11.
The implementation of basic IT protection is often troublesome. Ronny Frankenstein comments on the promising changes announced by the BSI, offering a new concept for IT security.
Scaling AI models is no longer significantly improving their performance. This affects OpenAI’s Orion and Anthropic’s Opus, with limited scalability benefits.
Apple’s hearing aid feature for its ANC earbuds is not yet available in all countries. A hack in India has enabled the feature by using a Faraday cage to unlock the AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid function.
A US court ruled that Google illegally exploited its monopoly. The US government may demand a radical step: separating Google and Chrome.
Renault introduces a version of its small car R5 with a smaller battery, offering a more affordable option.
Microsoft launches dedicated cloud PCs that only work with Windows 365, suitable for video conferencing and other tasks.
Oxygen continues to leak from a Russian module of the International Space Station. NASA and Roscosmos disagree on the danger, raising concerns about a potential “catastrophe.”
Following the CrowdStrike debacle, Microsoft is enhancing Windows security features, imposing stricter controls on third-party developers for Windows 11, aiming to make it “the most secure operating system in the world.”