Legal

• Trial of Theranos boss Elizabeth Holmes begins: She plans to say her boyfriend and COO Balwani abused her

  Judge asks prospective jurors whether they have experience with intimate partner violence
  Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Wed 1 Sep 2021 // 00:56 UTC 1

  The long anticipated fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of biomed upstart Theranos, got underway in San Jose, California, on Tuesday with Judge Edward Davila asking prospective jurors whether they have experienced "intimate partner violence or abuse" or know anyone has.

  Holmes, 37, who served as CEO of the blood-testing biz before doubts about the startup's business surfaced – leading to a civil complaint from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the shutdown of the company in 2018, and criminal charges brought by the US Department of Justice – is expected to claim she was abused by Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, 56, her former boyfriend who was also president and chief operating officer of Theranos.

  Documents unsealed over the weekend at the request of a lawyer for Dow Jones, parent company of the Wall Street Journal which exposed the problems at Theranos, indicate that Holmes intends to base her defense on her mental state.

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• More cracks found in Russian annex of the International Space Station

  Head of Russia's segment says it's time for Roscosmos to build its own orbiting lab
  Katyanna Quach Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 23:09 UTC 2

  Cracks characterized as superficial by Russia have been discovered in the nation's portion of the International Space Station.

  There's no word yet if these fissures in the Zarya module have caused, or will cause, any air leaks, though there is a concern they could widen.

  “Several such places with non-perforating cracks were found in the Zarya module," Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Russian segment of the space station and a former cosmonaut, told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti this week.

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• IBM sued again by its own sales staff: IT giant accused of going back on commission payments promise

  When it a contact not a contract? When it's an incentive plan letter
  Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 21:11 UTC 6

  IBM has been sued by sales manager Mark Briggs for allegedly capping sales commission payments despite a written commitment not to do so, joining dozens of cases claiming Big Blue screws its sales staff.

  The lawsuit [PDF], filed in a US federal district court in Northern California on Friday, challenges IBM's practice of insisting that it does not have a contractual obligation to pay commissions spelled out in written documents provided to its employees. It is at least the 30th lawsuit since 2014 in which IBM has argued its "incentive plan letters" are not enforceable contracts.

  IBM provides its salespeople with different compensation plans that outline sales quotas, and spell out how they will be paid. Those plans typically specify that a salesperson's total compensation will be composed of something like 55 per cent base salary and 45 per cent commission, calculated as a percentage of revenue from sales deals closed.

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• Google delays back-to-office recall until at least 2022

  Chocolate Factory says never-ending pandemic threw spanner in October plan
  Iain Thomson in San Francisco Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 20:17 UTC 1

  Google has delayed recalling its staff to their office desks until at least January 10, 2022.

  In an open email today, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told his staff they can choose to remain working from home until that date as the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to spread.

  He said "tens of thousands of Googlers" had already come back to the office to some degree voluntarily, and that there would be no mandatory recall until the New Year, and even then it would depend on local conditions.

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• US officials, experts fear China ransacked Exchange servers for data to train AI systems

  Plus: T-Mobile US apologizes, security holes found in medical pumps, and more
  Iain Thomson in San Francisco Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 19:23 UTC 3

  In brief The massive attack on Microsoft Exchange servers in March may have been China harvesting information to train AI systems, according to US government officials and computer-security experts who talked to NPR.

  The plundering of these Exchange systems was attributed to Chinese government cyber-spies known as Hafnium; Beijing denied any involvement.

  It's said the crew exploited four zero-days in Redmond's mail software in a chain to hijack the servers and siphon off data. And what started small turned into what Chang Kawaguchi, CISO for Microsoft 365, told NPR this month was the fastest scale-up of a cyber-attack he'd ever seen.

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• Windows 11 will roll out from October 5 as Microsoft hypes new hardware

  Staged updates mean potential wait till 2022 – particularly for those looking forward to Android app support
  Tim Anderson Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 16:26 UTC 55

  Microsoft has named October 5 as rollout day for Windows 11, though the IT giant's determination to support only relatively recent hardware will limit adoption.

  General manager Aaron Woodman posted the new date, and said that it is "the first version of a new era of Windows," highlighting its refreshed design, new Microsoft Store, and integration with Teams and Microsoft 365.

  The rollout will be gradual, with the free upgrade coming first to "new eligible devices," then to existing compatible models based on "hardware eligibility, reliability metrics, age of device and other factors that impact the upgrade experience."

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• Docker Desktop no longer free for large companies: New 'Business' subscription is here

  Search for sustainable business model continues, but most usage will still be free
  Tim Anderson Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 15:00 UTC 11

  Docker will restrict use of the free version of its Docker Desktop utility to individuals or small businesses, and has introduced a new more expensive subscription, as it searches for a sustainable business model.

  The company has renamed its Free plan to "Personal" and now requires that businesses with 250 or more employees, or higher than $10m in annual revenue, must use a paid subscription if they require Docker Desktop. There are no changes to the command-line Docker Engine. The $5/month Pro and $7/month Teams subscriptions continue as before, but a new $21/month Business subscription adds features including centralized management, single sign-on, and enhanced security.

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• Leaked Guntrader firearms data file shared. Worst case scenario? Criminals plot UK gun owners' home addresses in Google Earth

  Bang out of order
  Gareth Corfield Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 14:19 UTC 73

  Updated The names and home addresses of 111,000 British firearm owners have been dumped online as a Google Earth-compatible CSV file that pinpoints domestic homes as likely firearm storage locations – a worst-case scenario for victims of the breach.

  As an exercise in amplifying a data theft to levels that endanger public safety, the latest evolution of the Guntrader database break-in is likely to become an infosec case study in how security breaches can become worse over time as stolen information is put to ever more intrusive uses.

  Leaked online last week via an animal rights activist's blog, the stolen reformatted Guntrader database was explicitly advertised as being importable into Google Earth so randomers could "contact as many [owners] as you can in your area and ask them if they are involved in shooting animals."

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• Gartner predicts surge in government IT spending in post-pandemic catch-up

  'Unprecedented public demand' as dear leaders heave services for world+dog online
  Lindsay Clark Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 13:15 UTC 6

  Gartner is forecasting that governments the world over will splash more than half a trillion dollars on IT next year, a year-on-year growth in spending of 6.5 per cent.

  The analyst and research organisation said public sector IT budgets would hit $557.3bn in 2022, 64 per cent of which would go on IT services and software to improve responsiveness and resilience of public services.

  To put that in perspective, the analyst said the world's governments spent $459.425bn on IT in 2020 - so the 2022 figure would be a 21 per cent increase on the first year of pandemic spending.

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• Minnow Freshworks nips at tails of SaaS giants Salesforce and Servicenow with IPO plans

  Bach to basics: The well-funded IPO-er
  Lindsay Clark Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 11:52 UTC

  Enterprise application minnow Freshworks has filed for IPO in the hopes that its SaaSy software can take on the likes of Salesforce.

  The India-founded CRM specialist has published a Form S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering, which reports earlier this year suggested might achieve a valuation of $10bn.

  Freshworks specialises in providing both CRM externally and internal employee services for things like HR and IT, on the same platform, which it claims eases rollouts.

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• NHS England's release of 'details' on access to Palantir COVID-19 data store: Good enough? We're in a 'dialogue' says national data watchdog

  Critics, meanwhile, voice incredulity over how little data has been shared
  Lindsay Clark Tue 31 Aug 2021 // 10:34 UTC 15

  The National Data Guardian declined to endorse NHS England's effort to be transparent with its recently published detail on data flows from a patient medical information project that put US spy-tech firm Palantir at the heart of the government's response to the pandemic.

  The COVID-19 data store was launched in March 2020, and would pull together medical and operational data about the spread of the virus.

  Campaigners had to force the government to publish details of the contract supporting the project awarded to AWS, Microsoft, Google, Brexit-linked analytics firm Faculty, and Palantir, whose technology has been employed by the CIA and controversial US immigration agency ICE.

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