SaaS

Google makes shielded virtual machines its default cloudy option

As Azure adds Intel's much-probed SGX to its confidential zone

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Tue 28 Apr 2020 // 06:33 UTC

Google has made its Shielded VMs the default option in its cloud.

The web giant introduced Shielded VMs as an option in mid-2018. The virtual machines use a virtual trusted platform module (vTPM) and UEFI firmware to make it hard to sneak in malicious firmware, dud drivers, rootkits and other nasties that could mess up a VM as it launches.

Now Google has made shielded VMs the default in its IaaS service, provided you’re running newer cuts of CentOS, CoreOS, Debian, RHEL, SUSE Linux, Ubuntu and Windows Server. Google has also put shielded VMs beneath Cloud SQL, GKE, Kaggle and its Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory.

Migration of UEFI-based VMs from your premises to o Shielded VMs in GCE has also been enabled.

On the very same day, Microsoft also announced an advance of its confidential computing cloud with the release of a new DCsv2-series VM that uses Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) to keep data encrypted even while being processed.

In theory, SGX means data is not visible to an OS, hypervisor or even a user.

In practice it’s had holes kicked in it by attacks labelled PlunderVolt and Membuster, while the Intel-teasing boffins at Austria’s University of Graz have also had their wicked ways with the tech. SGX also helped to mount the LVI attack that continued the lame legacy of Meltdown and Spectre.

Intel’s patched SGX over the years and Azure has a sound security record.

Microsoft’s scored comment about the goodness of its confidential computing offering from secure messaging service Signal, which has plenty to lose if Microsoft has mucked up. ®

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Don't touch that dial – the new guy just closed the application that no one is meant to close

An unexpected round of Just A Minute for a unsuspecting Weather Presenter

Richard Speed Mon 27 Sep 2021 // 07:30 UTC

Who, Me? A story from the world of television in this week's edition of Who, Me? as a weather presenter sweats while panic reigns supreme in the backroom.

Our tale, from "Mike" (not his name), dates back to the early part of this century, when Windows NT 4 and 2000 ruled the roost and processes were a little less slick than today.

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Airbus to help build Mexican Moon-mining automata

Commercial partner's ad-funded expedition plans the ultimate pop-up in 2022

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 27 Sep 2021 // 06:59 UTC

Airbus and the Mexican Space Agency (MSA) have agreed to collaborate on tech to extract resources on the Moon.

The aerospace company will work with MSA and a startup called Dereum Labs to develop "an end-to-end process from regolith identification and capture to extraction of resources".

The three plan to create a "ground demonstration concept" for whatever hardware they determine is needed to "extract oxygen and metal, or to mine water".

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Indian state cuts off internet for millions to stop cheating in exams

1.6 million people sat teaching eligibility test, chasing 40,000 jobs

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 27 Sep 2021 // 05:57 UTC

The Indian state of Rajasthan yesterday cut off internet access to millions of citizens, in order to prevent cheating in an exam.

The exam in question is the Rajasthan Eligibility Exam for Teachers (REET) – a test that, as its name implies, is a requirement to be employed as a teacher.

Rajasthan's informational web site predicts that over 1.5 million people will sit the test in their quest to fill one of 40,000 vacant reaching jobs in the state. The test hasn't been run for two years.

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This won’t hurt a bit, says Veeam, as it flags end of socket-based licensing

Change to universal licenses coming sometime in 2022, says backup vendor, but won't be forced

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 27 Sep 2021 // 04:01 UTC

Backup vendor Veeam is almost certainly going to ditch per-socket licensing.

Senior veep for product management Anton Gostev has floated the idea for months in user forums, but last week revealed that the change is now all-but a fait accompli.

"All in all, it is looking like Veeam will in the end go ahead and stop selling Socket-based licenses sometime next year, just as I expected."

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'Quad' group seeks to set security standards for global tech industry

USA, India, Australia, and Japan pledge to build own 5G tech, share space data, secure rare earth supply chains, and more

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 27 Sep 2021 // 02:21 UTC

The Quad group of nations – the USA, India, Australia, and Japan – has announced several joint initiatives to share technology and spur its development, among them a plan to set new global security standards for the technology industry.

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Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou admits lying about Iran deal, gets to go home

US puts charges on ice, extradition attempt halted

Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Sat 25 Sep 2021 // 00:20 UTC

Updated Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou has reached a deal with the US Justice Department to drop the fraud and conspiracy charges against her in exchange for admitting that she made false statements about her company's business dealings with Iran.

The deferred prosecution agreement will end Uncle Sam's attempt to extradite Meng to the United States. It will allow her to depart Canada, where she has been detained since 2018, and return to China, easing a major source of diplomatic tension between Canada, China, and the US.

After Canadian authorities arrested Meng at the Vancouver airport in December, 2018, on behalf of the Americans, the US Justice Department indicted her and her manufacturing giant for violating US sanctions on Iran by misrepresenting Huawei's relationship with Hong Kong-based Skycom, which operated in Iran.

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For the nth time, China bans cryptocurrencies

Coin prices drop after People's Bank reiterates crackdown

Katyanna Quach Fri 24 Sep 2021 // 21:51 UTC

China has once again banned cryptocurrencies.

It's not even the first time this month Beijing's done so, let alone the first time ever, yet word of the reiterated crackdown sent coin prices tumbling, which may have been the ultimate goal. After all, China would prefer its citizens use its non-illegal digital yuan.

Bitcoin fell by 5.5 per cent, Ethererum by 7.4 per cent, and Dogecoin by 14.9 per cent, for instance, after this latest announcement and have since rebounded somewhat.

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Frustrated dev drops three zero-day vulns affecting Apple iOS 15 after six-month wait

Security Bounty program slammed over 'broken promises'

Thomas Claburn in San Francisco Fri 24 Sep 2021 // 19:43 UTC

Upset with Apple's handling of its Security Bounty program, a bug researcher has released proof-of-concept exploit code for three zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple's newly released iOS 15 mobile operating system.

The bug hunter, posting on Thursday to Russia-based IT blog Habr under the name IllusionOfChaos and to Twitter under the same moniker, expressed frustration with Apple's handling of vulnerability reports.

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Yugabyte's double-decker DBaaS follows Cochroach in distributed RDBMS

Hopes to lure users with promise of relieving operational burden

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Distributed relational database Yugabyte has launched a database-as-a-service product following a rush of inspiration from Facebook, Google and the world of FOSS.

While the open-source DBaaS impressed one analyst, it will have to cope with competition from well-funded CockroachDB, which has had its DBaaS on the market for nearly three years.

Yugabyte is sort of a double-decker database. It is inspired by Google Spanner underneath and compatible with PostgreSQL on top. As Yugabyte founder and CTO Karthik Ranganathan, a former Facebook technical lead, explained to The Register earlier this year:

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EurekAI... Neural network leads chemists to discover 'four new materials'

All said to conduct lithium atoms, may be useful for electric car batteries

Katyanna Quach Fri 24 Sep 2021 // 17:36 UTC

Chemists have discovered four new materials based on ideas generated from a neural network, according to research published in Nature.

Uncovering new materials is challenging. Scientists have to search for combinations of molecules that lead to useful compounds that can be manufactured.

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Scientists took cues from helicopter seeds to invent tiny microchips that float on wind

'Microfliers' could carry sensors to monitor air pollution and more

Lindsay Clark Fri 24 Sep 2021 // 16:29 UTC

Video As autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere, scientists have shown how tiny connected semiconductors can be distributed on the wind in a similar way to the seasonal spreading of airborne seeds.

Researchers led by Professor John Rogers of the US's Northwestern University designed printed circuits able to manifest rotational behaviours, as seen in helicopter and spinner seeds, that enhance the stability and flying behaviour.

In a paper published in Nature this week, they argue that simple electronics can be integrated into the designs, with one example containing a circuit to detect airborne particles.

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