Bootnotes

• Brit law firm files suit against Google and Deepmind over use of hospital patients' data

  Royal Free Hospital saga continues as representative action brought
  Lindsay Clark Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 16:02 UTC 1

  A UK law firm is bringing legal action on behalf of patients it says had their confidential medical records obtained by Google and DeepMind Technologies in breach of data protection laws.

  Mishcon de Reya said today it planned a representative action on behalf of Mr Andrew Prismall and the approximately 1.6 million individuals whose data was used as part of a testing programme for medical software developed by the companies.

  It told The Register the claim had already been issued in the High Court.

  Continue reading

• Which? survey finds people would actually pay the online giants not to take their data

  On the other hand, sweeten the deal with a couple of quid and they'll be a lot more happy to share
  Tim Richardson Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 15:28 UTC 7

  Consumer guardian Which? has attempted to put a price on people's personal information as it ramps up pressure for tougher rules around data-ravenous tech giants such as Google and Facebook.

  The British consumer champion has repeatedly argued that people are uncomfortable about the amount of data collected and stored by tech companies from online activity and gadgets in the home.

  Now it has changed tack and commissioned a 111-page report – Value of the Choice Requirement Remedy – that attempts to estimate the amount of money people in the UK would be prepared to pay Facebook and Google in return for greater control over how their data is collected and used.

  Continue reading

• Airline meal-sized £700k awarded by UK.gov for green aviation: That's for eco-tech rather than planes, mind

  Infrastructure to support lower-emission aircraft, is the hope
  Tim Richardson Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 14:44 UTC 3

  More than a dozen projects that might someday provide the infrastructure at airports to sustain zero-emission aviation are on the receiving end of grant money to continue their research.

  £700k isn't very much in aviation terms – if any private jet fans are reading this, that's the cost of about one-and-a-half roundtrips to Sydney in a Gulfstream G-650. So maybe fly commercial, and, er, reuse that tux.

  It's just as well, then, that the £700,000 will not be spent on the development of aircraft.

  Continue reading

• Autonomy founder Lynch scores extradition decision delay as Home Sec ponders sending him to US

  All eyes on Priti Patel as High Court case recedes into insignificance
  Gareth Corfield Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 13:59 UTC 10

  Autonomy Trial Home Secretary Priti Patel has granted Autonomy founder Mike Lynch a two month grace period on the decision to extradite him, according to reports.

  Lynch's waiting period to see if Patel will order his extradition to stand trial on criminal charges in the US will now end on 29 November, the Daily Telegraph reported.

  Continue reading

• Got enterprise workstations and hope to run Windows 11? Survey says: You lose. Over half the gear's not fit for it

  30 million Windows devices in 60k orgs studied
  Richard Speed Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 13:13 UTC 14

  Fallout from the notorious hardware requirements of Windows 11 continued this week, as IT management outfit Lansweeper published research showing well over half of surveyed workstations didn't make the cut.

  The news was even worse for servers; the survey showed less than 1 per cent of virtual machines were capable, going by Microsoft's requirements, of running the wunder-OS.

  The study looked at an estimated 30 million Windows devices over 60,000 organisations, and fingered CPU and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) requirements as the main culprit on workstations. Only 44.4 per cent of workstations met the CPU requirements, while 52.55 per cent of machines had a TPM enabled that would satisfy Microsoft's demands.

  Continue reading

• Oracle loses appeal against $3bn payment to HPE over withdrawal of Itanium support

  Could one of the longest and dirtiest cases in tech history finally be over?
  Lindsay Clark Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 12:27 UTC 6

  The Supreme Court of California has thrown out Oracle's appeal against a decision to award $3bn damages to HPE in a case which dates back a decade and relates to Big Red's commitment to develop on Itanium hardware.

  On Wednesday, the court denied a review of Oracle's appeal against a summary judgement, apparently without comment or any written dissents.

  The decision follows a ruling [PDF] made in the California Court of Appeal that affirmed HPE's $3.14bn win for alleged contract violation, stating that an agreement between the firms had created a legal obligation for Oracle to support software on HPE's Itanium server.

  Continue reading

• Virgin Galactic cleared to fly again after a spell on Federal Aviation Administration's naughty step

  More airspace and a hotline to the authority fixed up for the next flight
  Richard Speed Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 11:01 UTC 13

  Virgin Galactic has received clearance by US flight regulators to resume spaceflights.

  Owner Richard Branson's high altitude jaunt on the Unity 22 flight in July attracted the ire of the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) after the rocketplane, SpaceShipTwo, ventured outside of its allocated airspace.

  SpaceShipTwo, dubbed Unity, landed safely with a jubilant Branson on board but future flights were put on hold while the matter was investigated.

  Continue reading

• UK MoD data strategy calls for social media surveillance on behalf of 'local authorities'

  From a document supposedly about better use of existing silos. Eh?
  Gareth Corfield Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 10:15 UTC 24

  The Ministry of Defence has published a data strategy that calls on the British armed forces to make better use of its "enduring strategic asset" – by spying on social media and dobbing in dissenters to local councils.

  In a move bound to fuel tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists, the MoD's Data Strategy for Defence document [PDF] published this week says the military ought to be carrying out "Automated scanning of social media platforms" to detect "change in population sentiment."

  "Decision making is enhanced by local surveillance of groups of interest," notes the strategy document, adding that spying on irritated citizens' Facebook rants helps "local authorities" impose "heightened readiness measures".

  Continue reading

• Attacks against Remote Desktop Protocol endpoints have exploded this year, warns ESET's latest Threat Report

  Security firm points to a 'stalkerware' epidemic, new Nobelium group activity
  Gareth Halfacree Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 09:30 UTC 3

  Security specialist ESET's latest Threat Report warns of a massive increase in attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) endpoints – and new activity from the Nobelium gang against European government organisations.

  ESET's figures show attacks on RDP servers having gone up 103.9 per cent since its T1 report in June - it publishes three a year - representing a total of 55 billion detected brute-force attacks, thanks in no small part to a campaign focused on Spanish targets.

  "It seemed in T1 2021 that the growth of RDP attack attempts would be slowing down," ESET security awareness specialist Ondrej Kubovič told The Register.

  Continue reading

• UK government rolls out £3.6bn management consultancy framework amid scrutiny of rising external expertise spending

  Accenture poised to get contracts for hardware, software and IT advice as mega-pie sliced
  Lindsay Clark Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 08:29 UTC 11

  UK government has dished out spots on a £3.6bn framework to secure management consultancy services for IT strategy, software spending and hardware investments, among a flood of other advisory categories.

  Mammoth accounting and consultancy firm Accenture is one of the big winners in the tendering round, which dates back to 2019, and could rack up a maximum of £2.6bn in government contracts from the framework.

  The contract award notice describes nine lots under the Management Consultancy Framework Three (MCF3) deal put together by the Cabinet Office through the Crown Commercial Service, its buying agency that takes a 1 per cent commission on all the money spent via agreements it organises.

  Continue reading

• AWS Lambda was already serverless, now it can be x86-less too

  Cloudy concern allows Graviton2 Arm CPUs to handle your functions
  Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Thu 30 Sep 2021 // 07:57 UTC 8

  Amazon Web Services has made it possible to use its home-baked, Arm-powered Graviton2 CPUs with its Lambda serverless functions.

  The server-renter on Wednesday slipped out news that Gravitons are an option alongside its x86 offerings from Intel and AMD.

  It will come as no surprise that AWS reckons its own silicon slays on price – the company claims Graviton2 can deliver "up to 19 percent better performance at 20 percent lower cost".

  Continue reading