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• Hubble Space Telescope to switch to backup memory module after instrument computer halts

  Imagine the service ticket
  Katyanna Quach Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 21:58 UTC

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  Computer scientists at NASA are trying to fix the Hubble Space Telescope’s payload computer after the hardware froze due to what's believed to be a degraded memory module.

  “The payload computer has four total memory modules and only requires one,” a NASA spokesperson explained to El Reg.

  “You can think of it as being similar to a board of memory chips on a laptop that can be swapped out if there’s a problem. The team is currently working to swap the memory module that appears to have a problem. This was done numerous times during testing of the hardware before launch and the operations procedures for doing this are in place. The rest of Hubble is currently working normal.”

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• School teacher accused of pocketing $1m+ in insider trading using tips from Silicon Valley pal

  One of six guys charged over Infinera, Fortinet securities
  Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 20:20 UTC

  

  A teacher who knew too much about some of Silicon Valley's financial figures has been charged with insider dealing by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, along with five alleged accomplices.

  Benjamin Wylam, a high school teacher and sports bookmaker, has been charged with participating in an insider trading ring, allegedly said on an internet message board that "insider trading is part of my investment strategy."

  Wylam, according to a complaint [PDF] filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is one of six men accused of making stock trades based on non-public financial information from Silicon Valley companies.

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• Lenovo refreshes workstation ThinkPads with 11th-gen Intel CPUs, RTX graphics, 5G

  For those who like a bit of oomph under the bonnet
  Matthew Hughes Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 19:14 UTC

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  Lenovo has spruced up a significant chunk of its workstation-class lineup with the ThinkPad P1, P15, and P17 all seeing significant upgrades.

  The ThinkPad P1, now in its fourth generation, comes with a built-in 5G modem, a larger 90Wh battery, and a new top-case, which includes a redesigned keyboard and larger trackpad. The display has also seen a stretch, measuring 16-inches rather than the previous 15, and now uses a 16:10 aspect ratio, rather than the outdated 16:9.

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• Intrepid Change.org user launches petition to make Jeff Bezos' space trip one-way

  Jeff's younger brother and mystery hyper-rich paying passenger may end up as unfortunate collateral damage
  Matt Dupuy Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 18:01 UTC

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  A campaign has been started on the Change.org petition website to prevent Amazon founder Jeff Bezos from returning to Earth after his upcoming jaunt into space on 20 July.

  Bezos is scheduled to be launched 100km up for a brief, suborbital trip on the first manned flight by his New Shepard rocket, operated by the Blue Origin space tourism company he founded back in 2000.

  He will be accompanied on the flight by his brother, Mark, and a mystery auction winner who reportedly paid $28m for the privilege.

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• SpaceX spat with Viasat: Rival accused of abusing legislation to halt Elon's Starlink expansion

  Viasat's 'newfound environmentalism is belied by its actions at every turn'
  Matthew Hughes Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 17:15 UTC

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  SpaceX has accused a satellite telecommunications rival of trying to a weaponise environmental legislation to hamper the expansion of its Starlink internet service.

  Elon Musk's business said this in a response filed on Monday [PDF] in an ongoing legal dispute with Viasat, Dish Network, and consulting firm The Balance Group. The trio are contesting SpaceX's recently given Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval to operate Starlink satellites at a lower altitude.

  In a ruling published late April, the FCC allowed SpaceX to move 2,814 existing satellites from their current orbits of 1,100km to 1,300km to between 540km to 570km above Earth's surface. This would make its satellites more effective and improve coverage in rural areas, as well as in the polar regions.

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• Ryuk ransomware recovery cost us $8.1m and counting, says Baltimore school authority

  Spreadsheet breaks down spend on staving off future badness
  Gareth Corfield Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 16:37 UTC

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  An organisation whose network was infected by Ryuk ransomware has spent $8.1m over seven months recovering from it – and that’s still not the end of it, according to US news reports.

  The sum, spent by Baltimore County Public Schools, will doubtless raise some eyebrows and the public breakdown of the costs will be eye-opening for the infosec industry and potential corporate ransomware victims alike.

  A spreadsheet obtained by Fox 45 News Baltimore, a TV station, revealed the $8.1m spending and also broke it down into individual line items.

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• UK spends £36m on 18 little 'bullet-proof' boats to protect Royal Navy assets

  Like the massive ships with miniguns
  Tim Richardson Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 15:52 UTC

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  The UK is to splash £36m on 18 new vessels to help protect Royal Navy bases around Britain and Gibraltar.

  The contract – awarded to Liverpool-based boatbuilders Marine Specialised Technology, who seemed comfortable with being named as part of the deal – will help protect 50 jobs and create a further 15 posts.

  For the flotilla of Register readers who take an interest in such things, the 15-metre craft will be able to carry three crew and up to four passengers while cruising at up to 30 knots.

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• We've found another reason not to use Microsoft's Paint 3D – researchers

  Scream if you wanna go raster: Vulnerability uncovered in unloved software
  Richard Speed Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 15:07 UTC

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  As Microsoft preps the next version of Windows, a hole has been spotted in an earlier Great Hope for the company: MS Paint 3D.

  The raster graphics and 3D modelling app was part of Microsoft's Creators Update back in 2016 and was released in 2017. The idea was that users would embrace its support for 3D objects and ditch the ancient Microsoft Paint (first introduced with Windows 1.0) for the new shiny.

  Things did not turn out quite that way, and Microsoft Paint continues to endure while Paint 3D looks set to follow many of the company's ambitions, ultimately shuffling quietly off into the graveyard where Zune, Band and Media Center are buried.

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• Systemd 249 release candidate includes better support for immutable OSes and provisioning images

  Along with a slew of other new features
  Tim Anderson Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 14:22 UTC

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  Systemd maintainer Lennart Poettering has committed code for RC1 including a huge number of new features.

  Releases tend to come around every four months, with the last being Systemd 248 on 30 March. It is an alternative to the Linux init daemon but with much greater scope; its documentation describes it as "a suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system."

  Most but not all Linux distros have adopted systemd – including Debian, SUSE, Red Hat (and its variants Fedora and CentOS), and Ubuntu. Debian can be run without systemd, and Devuan is a fork of Debian that specifically avoids it.

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• Cuffed: Ukraine police collar six Clop ransomware gang suspects in joint raids with South Korean cops

  Cobalt Strike and Flawedammyy RAT named as favoured tools
  Gareth Corfield Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 13:37 UTC

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  Ukrainian police have arrested six people, alleged to be members of the notorious Clop* ransomware gang, seizing cash, cars – and a number of Apple Mac laptops and desktops.

  "It was established that six defendants carried out attacks of malicious software such as 'ransomware' on the servers of American and [South] Korean companies," alleged Ukraine's national police force in a statement published at lunchtime today.

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• Spacewalk veterans take a trip outside the ISS to pump up the power with new solar arrays

  Lego ISS fans, look away now
  Richard Speed Wed 16 Jun 2021 // 13:07 UTC

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  International Space Station (ISS) astronauts are venturing out of the orbiting outpost today to replace its ageing solar arrays.

  It is an international effort, with NASA's Shane Kimbrough and ESA's Thomas Pesquet exiting the lab's Quest airlock to deploy the first of six arrays (dubbed ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays – iROSAs) that should boost the power supply of the station and keep things ticking over until decommissioning time.

  Two of the new arrays arrived in SpaceX's latest Dragon cargo spacecraft and were plucked from the freighter's trunk by the ISS's robotic arm. Kimbrough and Pesquet will work first on the far end of the left (port) side of the station's truss to install the first array and venture out once more on Sunday 20 June to install the second.

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