Longtime Slashdot reader krouic shares a report from Europol: From November 24-28, 2025, Europol supported an action week conducted by law enforcement authorities from Switzerland and Germany in Zurich, Switzerland. The operation focused on taking down the illegal cryptocurrency mixing service Cryptomixer, which is suspected of facilitating cybercrime and money laundering. Three servers were seized in Switzerland, along with the cryptomixer.io domain. The operation resulted in the confiscation of over 12 terabytes of data and more than EUR 25 million worth of Bitcoin. After the illegal service was taken over and shut down, law enforcement placed a seizure banner on the website. Authorities allege that the mixing service laundered over 1.3 billion euros in bitcoin since 2016.
The Steam Survey results are out for November 2025 and continue to be very positive for the growing adoption of Linux gaming thanks to the success of the Steam Deck, the underlying Steam Play (Proton) software, and now further excitement thanks to the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame...
A new study from the University of Pennsylvania finds that preteens who own smartphones by age 12 have significantly higher odds of depression, obesity, and poor sleep compared to their peers. Axios reports: Kids who owned a smartphone at age 12 were found to have about 31% higher odds of depression, 40% higher odds of obesity and 62% higher odds of insufficient sleep than their peers who didn't have one. The researchers analyzed data from the National Institutes of Health-supported Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study assessments conducted between 2016 and 2022. The study included responses from 10,588 youths. Kids who had smartphones were more likely to be female, Black or Hispanic, and from lower-income households. The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics.
Apple's longtime AI chief John Giannandrea is retiring, with former Microsoft and Google AI leader Amar Subramanya stepping in to take over. MacRumors notes the retirement comes after the company's repeated delays in delivering its revamped Siri and internal turmoil that led to an AI team exodus. From the report: Giannandrea will serve as an advisor between now and 2026, with former Microsoft AI researcher Amar Subramanya set to take over as vice president of AI. Subramanya will report to Apple engineering chief Craig Federighi, and will lead Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. Subramanya was previously corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, and before that, he spent 16 years at Google. He was head of engineering for Google's Gemini Assistant, and Apple says that he has "deep expertise" in both AI and ML research that will be important to "Apple's ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features."
Some of the teams that Giannandrea oversaw will move to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue, such as AI Infrastructure and Search and Knowledge. Khan is Apple's new Chief Operating Officer who took over for Jeff Williams earlier this year. Cue has long overseen Apple services. [...] Apple said that it is "poised to accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, trusted, and profoundly personal experiences" with the new AI team. "We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement. "AI has long been central to Apple's strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig's leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple. In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar's joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year."
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Flock, the automatic license plate reader and AI-powered camera company, uses overseas workers from Upwork to train its machine learning algorithms, with training material telling workers how to review and categorize footage including images people and vehicles in the United States, according to material reviewed by 404 Media that was accidentally exposed by the company. The findings bring up questions about who exactly has access to footage collected by Flock surveillance cameras and where people reviewing the footage may be based. Flock has become a pervasive technology in the US, with its cameras present in thousands of communities that cops use every day to investigate things like carjackings. Local police have also performed numerous lookups for ICE in the system.
Companies that use AI or machine learning regularly turn to overseas workers to train their algorithms, often because the labor is cheaper than hiring domestically. But the nature of Flock's business -- creating a surveillance system that constantly monitors US residents' movements -- means that footage might be more sensitive than other AI training jobs. [...] Broadly, Flock uses AI or machine learning to automatically detect license plates, vehicles, and people, including what clothes they are wearing, from camera footage. A Flock patent also mentions cameras detecting "race." It included figures on "annotations completed" and "annotator tasks remaining in queue," with annotations being the notes workers add to reviewed footage to help train AI algorithms. Tasks include categorizing vehicle makes, colors, and types, transcribing license plates, and "audio tasks." Flock recently started advertising a feature that will detect "screaming." The panel showed workers sometimes completed thousands upon thousands of annotations over two day periods. The exposed panel included a list of people tasked with annotating Flock's footage. Taking those names, 404 Media found some were located in the Philippines, according to their LinkedIn and other online profiles.
Many of these people were employed through Upwork, according to the exposed material. Upwork is a gig and freelance work platform where companies can hire designers and writers or pay for "AI services," according to Upwork's website. The tipsters also pointed to several publicly available Flock presentations which explained in more detail how workers were to categorize the footage. It is not clear what specific camera footage Flock's AI workers are reviewing. But screenshots included in the worker guides show numerous images from vehicles with US plates, including in New York, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, and California. Other images include road signs clearly showing the footage is taken from inside the US, and one image contains an advertisement for a specific law firm in Atlanta.
Three Austrian nuns in their 80s who escaped a care home and reclaimed their old convent are refusing the church's offer to stay because it requires them to quit Instagram, stop speaking to the press, and avoid legal counsel -- conditions they call a gag order. Their standoff with church authorities has now escalated to the Vatican as the nuns continue posting to their 185,000 followers. NPR reports: Before the church authorities moved the nuns into care almost two years ago, the local abbey and Archdiocese of Salzburg acquired the convent. The sisters say they were not aware they were signing away what they understood to be their lifelong right to remain in the cloister. On Friday, their superior, Provost Markus Grasl from Reichersberg Abbey, announced that the sisters can stay. But his offer comes with conditions: The nuns must cease all social media activities, stop talking to the press and forgo seeking legal advice. The nuns have rejected the proposal, and now Grasl has called on the Vatican to intercede.
In a statement released Friday, the nuns said the provost's offer is nothing short of a gag order. Speaking via Instagram, Sister Regina said, "We can't agree to this deal. Without the media, we'd have been silenced." Sister Bernadette told Instagram followers: "We need to resolve this but any agreement we reach must be in accordance with God's will and shaped by human reason." [...] The provost's proposed agreement -- which NPR has seen -- also bans laypeople from entering the cloisters, including the sisters' helpers, many of whom they've known for decades and on whom the nuns now depend for help.
Speaking to NPR on Monday, the provost's spokesperson, crisis PR manager Harald Schiffl, said that the provost does not understand why the nuns reject his offer and that, in response, he has requested the Vatican authorities responsible for religious orders to step in. The Vatican has not commented on the situation. So while they await news from Rome, the sisters continue to follow the papal Instagram account. Schiffl says the terms relating to the nuns' social media use are reasonable: "The abbey wishes to discontinue the sisters' social media accounts because what they show has very little to do with real religious life."
"The car-sharing company, first launched in the U.S. in 2000, has been active in the UK since 2010 and has just under half a million members," writes Slashdot reader guesstral. "'I'm writing to let you know that we are proposing to cease the UK operations of Zipcar,' wrote Zipcar UK's general manager, James Taylor, in an email to members today. He went on to say that Zipcar will temporarily suspend new bookings after December 31, pending the outcome of a consultation with its 71 staff members." From the BBC: In its most recent company accounts for 2024, Zipcar blamed the "cost of living crisis," which was affecting UK customers, for revenues falling to 46 million pounds to 53 million the year before, while its after-tax losses had widened to 11.6 million pounds. According to the same accounts, Zipcar membership fees cover the cost of fuelling or charging the vehicle and, as energy costs continued to rise last year, it has added to financial pressures on the company. The company would also be liable for the incoming congestion charge in London that is expanding to include electric vehicles from 26 December, although this was not referenced in Zipcar's email to membership or company accounts.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: South Korean e-commerce platform Coupang over the weekend said nearly 34 million Korean customers' personal information had been leaked in a data breach that had been ongoing for more than five months. The company said it first detected the unauthorized exposure of 4,500 user accounts on November 18, but a subsequent investigation revealed that the breach had actually compromised about 33.7 million customer accounts in South Korea. The breach affected customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and certain order histories, per Coupang. More sensitive data like payment information, credit card numbers, and login credentials was not compromised and remains secure, the company said. [...] Police have reportedly identified at least one suspect, a former Chinese Coupang employee now abroad, after launching an investigation following a November 18 complaint.
New York has become the first state in the nation to enact a law requiring retailers to disclose when AI and personal data are being used to set individualized prices [non-paywalled source] -- a measure that lawyers say will make algorithmic pricing "the next big battleground in A.I. regulation."
The law, enacted through the state budget, requires online retailers using personalized pricing to post a specific notice: "THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA." The National Retail Federation sued to block enforcement on First Amendment grounds, arguing the required disclosure was "misleading and ominous," but federal judge Jed S. Rakoff allowed the law to proceed last month.
Uber has started displaying the notice to New York users. Spokesman Ryan Thornton called the law "poorly drafted and ambiguous" but maintained the company only considers geographic factors and demand in setting prices. At least 10 states have bills pending that would require similar disclosures or ban personalized pricing outright. California and federal lawmakers are considering complete bans.
Singapore's Ministry of Education has announced that secondary school students will be banned from using smartphones and smartwatches throughout the entire school day starting January 2026, extending current restrictions beyond regular lesson time to cover recess, co-curricular activities, and supplementary lessons. Under the new guidelines, students must store their phones in designated areas like lockers or keep them in their school bags.
Smartwatches also fall under the ban because they enable messaging and social media access, which the ministry says can lead to distractions and reduced peer interaction. Schools may allow exceptions where necessary. Some secondary schools adopted these tighter rules after they were announced for primary schools in January 2025, and the ministry reports improved student well-being and more physical interaction during breaks at those schools. The ministry is also moving the default sleep time for school-issued personal learning devices from 11pm to 10.30pm starting January.
SUSE engineer David Sterba submitted the Btrfs pull request for Linux 6.19 on Friday, ahead of the Linux 6.18 stable kernel release that took place on Sunday. This copy-on-write file-system continues seeing some enticing feature work and other improvements for this next version of the Linux kernel...
France Travail a indiqué lundi 1ᵉʳ décembre avoir été victime d’un acte de cyber malveillance ayant entraîné une fuite de données personnelles. En l’occurrence, ce sont les informations relatives à environ 1,6 million de jeunes suivis par le réseau des Missions Locales (antennes dédiées à l’insertion faisant partie du service public de l’emploi) qui sont concernées, soit parce qu’ils étaient inscrits à France Travail, soit parce qu’ils s’étaient vu prescrire une formation via l’outil Ouiform opéré par France Travail.
1,6 million de comptes de jeunes inscrits à la mission locale
Le jeu de données exfiltrées comprend des informations complètes d’état civil : nom et prénom, date de naissance, numéro de sécurité sociale, identifiant France Travail, adresses mail et postale et numéros de téléphone, indiquent France Travail et le réseau des Missions Locales dans un communiqué commun. « Aucun mot de passe ni aucune coordonnée bancaire n’ont été extraits », ajoutent les deux organismes.
D’après les premières investigations, c’est par l’intermédiaire du compte d’un agent d’une mission locale que l’intrusion aurait été réalisée. En tant que responsable gestion de compte (RGC), ce dernier était en mesure de traiter les demandes d’habilitation de ses collègues (et donc d’autres comptes utilisateurs) au système d’information partagé mis en place par France Travail pour faciliter la collaboration avec des organismes tiers.
France Travail et l’UNML (Union nationale des missions locales) « appellent à la vigilance »
« En utilisant les droits du compte compromis, l’attaquant a pu créer deux nouveaux comptes via le service ProConnect, donnant ensuite l’accès aux outils métier permettant la consultation des dossiers des jeunes accompagnés », décrit France Travail, qui affirme que les trois comptes concernés ont été suspendus, et assure faire son maximum pour concilier ouverture et protection des données personnelles.
Ouverture contre sécurité
« Avec l’ouverture de son système d’information aux partenaires dans le cadre de la loi pour le plein emploi, France Travail avait déjà mis en place la double authentification systématique de tous les collaborateurs de ses partenaires et rendu obligatoire une formation pour tous les RGC. L’accès au SI de France Travail est en outre conditionné à la réussite d’une évaluation à l’issue de cette formation. France Travail va désormais aller plus loin en mettant en place une sensibilisation obligatoire à renouveler tous les 6 mois pour tous les collaborateurs de nos partenaires qui conditionnera leur accès au système d’information. »
France Travail affirme par ailleurs collaborer avec la Direction interministérielle du numérique (Dinum) « pour renforcer l’identification via Proconnect et l’enrôlement des comptes de tiers par le SI France Travail ». En attendant, la prudence est donc de mise pour les jeunes en recherche d’emploi passés par la mission locale la plus proche de chez eux : le périmètre des données exposées autorise en effet des scénarios avancés de phishing ou d’usurpation d’identité.
Ce nouvel incident ne redorera pas le blason d’un service public de l’emploi déjà largement terni en matière de fuites de données. Rappelons que le service dédié aux demandeurs d’emploi a été victime, début 2024, d’une fuite de données massive qui avait conduit à l’exposition des informations relatives à quelque 43 millions d’inscrits. La portée réelle de l’intrusion avait toutefois été relativisée par la suite.
Depuis, France Travail a dû communiquer sur une fuite affectant 340 000 dossiers en juillet, survenue par l’intermédiaire d’un portail dédié à ses partenaires, puis sur un nouvel incident fin octobre, qui pourrait concerner jusqu’à 31 000 personnes.
France Travail a indiqué lundi 1ᵉʳ décembre avoir été victime d’un acte de cyber malveillance ayant entraîné une fuite de données personnelles. En l’occurrence, ce sont les informations relatives à environ 1,6 million de jeunes suivis par le réseau des Missions Locales (antennes dédiées à l’insertion faisant partie du service public de l’emploi) qui sont concernées, soit parce qu’ils étaient inscrits à France Travail, soit parce qu’ils s’étaient vu prescrire une formation via l’outil Ouiform opéré par France Travail.
1,6 million de comptes de jeunes inscrits à la mission locale
Le jeu de données exfiltrées comprend des informations complètes d’état civil : nom et prénom, date de naissance, numéro de sécurité sociale, identifiant France Travail, adresses mail et postale et numéros de téléphone, indiquent France Travail et le réseau des Missions Locales dans un communiqué commun. « Aucun mot de passe ni aucune coordonnée bancaire n’ont été extraits », ajoutent les deux organismes.
D’après les premières investigations, c’est par l’intermédiaire du compte d’un agent d’une mission locale que l’intrusion aurait été réalisée. En tant que responsable gestion de compte (RGC), ce dernier était en mesure de traiter les demandes d’habilitation de ses collègues (et donc d’autres comptes utilisateurs) au système d’information partagé mis en place par France Travail pour faciliter la collaboration avec des organismes tiers.
France Travail et l’UNML (Union nationale des missions locales) « appellent à la vigilance »
« En utilisant les droits du compte compromis, l’attaquant a pu créer deux nouveaux comptes via le service ProConnect, donnant ensuite l’accès aux outils métier permettant la consultation des dossiers des jeunes accompagnés », décrit France Travail, qui affirme que les trois comptes concernés ont été suspendus, et assure faire son maximum pour concilier ouverture et protection des données personnelles.
Ouverture contre sécurité
« Avec l’ouverture de son système d’information aux partenaires dans le cadre de la loi pour le plein emploi, France Travail avait déjà mis en place la double authentification systématique de tous les collaborateurs de ses partenaires et rendu obligatoire une formation pour tous les RGC. L’accès au SI de France Travail est en outre conditionné à la réussite d’une évaluation à l’issue de cette formation. France Travail va désormais aller plus loin en mettant en place une sensibilisation obligatoire à renouveler tous les 6 mois pour tous les collaborateurs de nos partenaires qui conditionnera leur accès au système d’information. »
France Travail affirme par ailleurs collaborer avec la Direction interministérielle du numérique (Dinum) « pour renforcer l’identification via Proconnect et l’enrôlement des comptes de tiers par le SI France Travail ». En attendant, la prudence est donc de mise pour les jeunes en recherche d’emploi passés par la mission locale la plus proche de chez eux : le périmètre des données exposées autorise en effet des scénarios avancés de phishing ou d’usurpation d’identité.
Ce nouvel incident ne redorera pas le blason d’un service public de l’emploi déjà largement terni en matière de fuites de données. Rappelons que le service dédié aux demandeurs d’emploi a été victime, début 2024, d’une fuite de données massive qui avait conduit à l’exposition des informations relatives à quelque 43 millions d’inscrits. La portée réelle de l’intrusion avait toutefois été relativisée par la suite.
Depuis, France Travail a dû communiquer sur une fuite affectant 340 000 dossiers en juillet, survenue par l’intermédiaire d’un portail dédié à ses partenaires, puis sur un nouvel incident fin octobre, qui pourrait concerner jusqu’à 31 000 personnes.
Microsoft has acknowledged that a recent Windows preview update, KB5064081, contains a bug that renders the password icon invisible on the lock screen, leaving users to click on what appears to be empty space to enter their credentials.
The issue affects Windows Insider channel users who installed the non-security preview update. The company's suggested workaround is straightforward if somewhat absurd: click where the button should be, and the password field will appear. Microsoft said it is working to resolve the issue.
The Santa Monica City Council has unanimously voted to order Waymo to halt overnight charging operations at two outdoor depots near Broadway and 14th Street after months of resident complaints about constant beeping from reverse sensors, noise from charging equipment, traffic congestion and flashing lights between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. As many as 56 autonomous vehicles charge at the two sites. It's unclear whether Waymo or its Virginia-based charging operator Volterra intends to comply.
The Los Angeles Times reported that neither company planned to, claiming city officials misunderstood their existing permit rights. Waymo told the newspaper it had adjusted operations in response to neighbor feedback and would continue seeking community input, though the company did not address the order directly. Local law enforcement has gotten involved after at least one person attempted to disrupt operations at the facilities on several occasions.
The dispute points to a broader challenge facing the autonomous vehicle industry: charging depots need to be close to service areas to minimize deadhead miles (distance traveled without revenue-generating passengers), but situating them in residential neighborhoods creates exactly these kinds of conflicts.
Fedora stakeholders have been eyeing a nicer experience for NTSYNC usage with Wine and Steam Play by being able to have the NTSYNC kernel module load when it's likely to be used. That approval has now been granted by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) for the Fedora 44 release...
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix has removed the ability to cast shows and movies from phones to TVs, unless subscribers are using older casting devices. An updated help page on Netflix's website, first reported by Android Authority, says that the streaming service "no longer supports casting shows from a mobile device to most TVs and TV-streaming devices," and instead directs users to navigate Netflix using the remote that came with their TV hardware.
When it comes to AMD Radeon/Instinct GPU compiler support much of the emphasis is on the LLVM/Clang compiler stack with their official AMDGPU LLVM shader compiler back-end as well as having the AOMP downstream compiler fork and the like. But the GNU Compiler Collection "GCC" does continue allow targeting AMD GPU targeting with its "AMDGCN" back-end and using the likes of the OpenMP API. It's not too often seeing new AMD GPU activity there for GCC but merged today is now support for managed memory...
The skills that future graduates will most need in an age of automation -- creative thinking, critical analysis, the capacity to learn new things -- are precisely those that a growing body of research suggests may be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process, yet universities across the United States are now racing to embed the technology into every dimension of their curricula.
Ohio State University announced this summer that it would integrate AI education into every undergraduate program, and the University of Florida and the University of Michigan are rolling out similar initiatives. An MIT study offers reason for caution: researchers divided subjects into three groups and had them write essays over several months using ChatGPT, Google Search, or no technology at all. The ChatGPT group produced vague, poorly reasoned work, showed the lowest levels of brain activity on EEG, and increasingly relied on cutting and pasting from other sources. The authors concluded that LLM users "consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels" over the four-month period.
Justin Reich, director of MIT's Teaching Systems Lab, recently wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education that rushed educational efforts to incorporate new technology have "failed regularly, and sometimes catastrophically."
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