BATTERYFORPC BLOG
Tonga tsunami: Communications 'may be down for two weeks'
It may take as much as two weeks to fully restore communications in Tonga after a massive volcanic blast that triggered a tsunami. Some of the islands' communications and power have now been restored, but the internet may be out for a while longer because of damage to an undersea cable. After the eruption, Tonga's main island was blanketed in ash and its western coastline is said to be devastate ... Read more
2022-01-17 18:52:36
North Korea hackers stole $400m of cryptocurrency in 2021, report says
North Korean hackers stole almost $400m (£291m) worth of digital assets in at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms last year, a report claims. Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis said it was one of most successful years on record for cyber-criminals in the closed east Asian state. The attacks mainly targeted investment firms and centralised exchanges. North Korea has routinely de ... Read more
2022-01-17 18:52:14
Google will spend £730m to 'reinvigorate' its UK offices
Google is backing a return to the office with an investment that will expand its UK capacity by 50% and "reinvigorate" the work environment. The search giant is spending £730m ($1bn) and expects headcount to rise from 6,400 to 10,000. It is buying one of the London sites, Central Saint Giles, in which it is currently a tenant. Google's UK boss Ronan Harris told the BBC the investment ... Read more
2022-01-16 23:19:40
Tech Tent: Has Theranos changed Silicon Valley?
Elizabeth Holmes told investors she could diagnose hundreds of diseases with just a few drops of blood. She couldn't. Last week she was found guilty of fraud. But with so much money sloshing around in Silicon Valley, will the verdict change anything? On this week's Tech Tent, we speak to people who think the Theranos debacle could be good for Silicon Valley in the long term - and to some who don ... Read more
2022-01-14 19:16:30
Meta faces billion-pound class-action case
Up to 44 million UK Facebook users could share £2.3bn in damages, according to a competition expert intending to sue parent company Meta. Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen alleges Meta "abused its market dominance" to set an "unfair price" for free use of Facebook - UK users' personal data. She intends to bring the case to the Competition Appeal Tribunal. A Meta representative said us ... Read more
2022-01-14 19:15:28
Ukraine cyber-attack: Russia to blame for hack, says Kyiv
The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of being behind Friday's cyber-attack on dozens of official websites. About 70 government websites were temporarily down, in the largest such attack on Ukraine in four years. Before the sites went offline, a message appeared warning Ukrainians to "prepare for the worst". Access to most of the sites was restored within hours. The US and Nato ... Read more
2022-01-14 19:15:10
Twitter agrees to Nigeria's demands to end seven-month ban
Twitter has agreed to register in Nigeria and pay local taxes to end a seven-month ban, the BBC understands. This will come as a big surprise to many Nigerians, who had assumed that the Nigerian government had backed down following months of negotiations, says the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo in Abuja. Nigeria suspended the social media firm last June after it deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhar ... Read more
2022-01-13 18:45:58
Apple removes Wordle clones from App Store
Multiple copycat versions of the hugely popular word game Wordle have been removed from the App Store, Apple has confirmed to BBC News. BBC News found several similar-looking games still available, however. A different game with the same name has been on the store for five years. On Google Play, the equivalent for Android phones, there were two games called Wordle but neither was similar. The n ... Read more
2022-01-13 18:45:35
Largest darknet stolen credit card site closes
The administrators of the largest illegal marketplace on the darknet for stolen credit cards are retiring after making an estimated $358m (£260m). The anonymous owners of UniCC thanked the criminal fraternity for their business, citing age and health for the closure. Many other illegal darknet marketplaces have also shut down voluntarily over the winter for unknown reasons. Police say the trend ... Read more
2022-01-13 18:45:06
Meta monopoly case from FTC given go-ahead
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been given the go-ahead to take Facebook to court over anti-trust rules. The competition and consumer regulator is trying to make Facebook - now called Meta - sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. A previous version of the same action failed last year because of a lack of detail. The FTC has since revised the case and a federal judge has said the claim is no ... Read more
2022-01-12 20:40:36