The Register

• And the winner of the Microsoft Christmas sweater is... 2025-12-06
  Peak Microsoft is whatever you want it to be. Or not The readers have spoken, and the era of peak Microsoft is… open to debate.…
  Richard Speed
• Death to one-time text codes: Passkeys are the new hotness in MFA 2025-12-06
  Wanna know a secret? Whether you're logging into your bank, health insurance, or even your email, most services today do not live by passwords alone. Now commonplace, multifactor authentication (MFA) requires users to enter a second or third proof of identity. However, not all forms of MFA are created equal, and the one-time passwords orgs […]
  Jessica Lyons
• Judge hints Vizio TV buyers may have rights to source code licensed under GPL 2025-12-05
  Tentative ruling signals a potential win for SFC’s copyleft enforcement push Electronics biz Vizio may be required by a California court to provide source code for its SmartCast TV software, which is allegedly based on open source code licensed under the GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1.…
  Thomas Claburn
• Crims using social media images, videos in 'virtual kidnapping' scams 2025-12-05
  Proof of life? Or an active social media presence? Criminals are altering social media and other publicly available images of people to use as fake proof of life photos in "virtual kidnapping" and extortion scams, the FBI warned on Friday. …
  Jessica Lyons
• Salesforce has come up with the most credible threat yet to ServiceNow, and Benioff is crowing about it 2025-12-05
  Some within the CRM giant balked, but Benioff prevailed ServiceNow’s dominant spot among IT service management (ITSM) platforms is facing its “most credible” threat to date, as longtime platform rival Salesforce has rolled out an AI agent-powered product that has won early plaudits from one of the largest credit unions in the US.…
  O'Ryan Johnson
• Novel clickjacking attack relies on CSS and SVG 2025-12-05
  Who needs JavaScript? Security researcher Lyra Rebane has devised a novel clickjacking attack that relies on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).…
  Thomas Claburn
• Cloudflare blames Friday outage on borked fix for React2shell vuln 2025-12-05
  Security community needs to rally and share more info faster, one researcher says Amid new reports of attackers pummeling a maximum security hole (CVE-2025-55182) in the React JavaScript library, Cloudflare's technology chief said his company took down its own network, forcing a widespread outage early Friday, to patch React2Shell.…
  Jessica Lyons
• EU metes out first-ever Digital Services Act fine, dings X for blue check deception 2025-12-05
  TikTok, by contrast, satisfied DSA concerns over its ad repository transparency The European Union has issued its first-ever Digital Services Act fine, slapping Elon Musk's X with a €120 million penalty for breaching the bloc's rules on ad transparency, data access for researchers, and its revamped blue-checkmark system.…
  Brandon Vigliarolo
• Microsoft 365 boosts prices in 2026 … to pay for more AI and security 2025-12-05
  All those new features won’t fund themselves Microsoft 365 customers have gotten an early Christmas present from Santa Satya: price rises. All that AI goodness isn't going to pay for itself.…
  Richard Speed
• Tech leaders fill $1T AI bubble, insist it doesn't exist 2025-12-05
  Even as enterprises defer spending and analysts spot dotcom-era warning signs Tech execs are adamant the AI craze is not a bubble, despite the vast sums of money being invested, overinflated valuations given to AI startups, and reports that many projects fail to make it past the pilot stage.…
  Dan Robinson
• Asus supplier hit by ransomware attack as gang flaunts alleged 1 TB haul 2025-12-05
  Laptop maker says a vendor breach exposed some phone camera code, but not its own systems Asus has admitted that a third-party supplier was popped by cybercrims after the Everest ransomware gang claimed it had rifled through the tech titan's internal files.…
  Carly Page
• Beijing-linked hackers are hammering max-severity React bug, AWS warns 2025-12-05
  State-backed attackers started poking flaw as soon as it dropped – anyone still unpatched is on borrowed time Amazon has warned that China-nexus hacking crews began hammering the critical React "React2Shell" vulnerability within hours of disclosure, turning a theoretical CVSS-10 hole into a live-fire incident almost immediately.…
  Carly Page
• Salesforce finds new AI monetization knobs to twist 2025-12-05
  With seat and usage-based deals back on the table, CRM giant tells investors agent prices are going up Salesforce has told investors it is upping prices for AI agent platforms, claiming customers will get between three and ten times the value from investment as it introduces new AI charging models.…
  Lindsay Clark
• Linux 6.18 crowned LTS kernel – and Alpine 3.23 wastes no time adopting it 2025-12-05
  Umpteen other distros just put out new versions, but this one is our favorite Kernel 6.18 has already been designated the new LTS release – just as we predicted – and Alpine Linux 3.23 has arrived carrying it ahead of a flurry of other year-end distro updates.…
  Liam Proven
• Irish Excel whiz sheets all over the competition in Vegas showdown 2025-12-05
  Diarmuid Early takes world title after outpacing 11 rivals Ireland's Diarmuid Early has won the Excel World Championship. Readers of a certain age may be disappointed to learn he has never used Lotus 1-2-3.…
  Richard Speed
• UK pushes ahead with facial recognition expansion despite civil liberties backlash 2025-12-05
  Plan would create statutory powers for police use of biometrics, prompting warnings of mass surveillance The UK government has kicked off plans to ramp up police use of facial recognition, undeterred by a mounting civil liberties backlash and fresh warnings that any expansion risks turning public spaces into biometric dragnets.…
  Carly Page
• FreeBSD 15 trims legacy fat and revamps how OS is built 2025-12-05
  Project retires 32-bit ports, embraces pkgbase, and modernizes build process The latest release of FreeBSD contains a lot of crucial under-the-hood changes – and drops 32-bit support on both x86 and POWER, although ARM-v7 survives.…
  Liam Proven
• Pension portal launch fail sends Capita running to Microsoft for help 2025-12-05
  Union fields member complaints as it presses outsourcer over botched rollout Capita has sought Microsoft's help after the launch of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) left users facing a malfunctioning website designed to process important financial information.…
  Lindsay Clark
• Cloudflare suffers second outage in as many months during routine maintenance 2025-12-05
  The Reg is still standing (this time) despite our best efforts Updated  Routine Cloudflare maintenance went awry this morning, knocking over the company's dashboard and API and sending sites around the world into error screens.…
  Richard Speed
• Bots, bias, and bunk: How can you tell what's real on the net? 2025-12-05
  You can improve the odds by combining skepticism, verification habits, and a few technical checks Opinion  Liars, cranks, and con artists have always been with us. It's just that nowadays their reach has gone from the local pub to the globe.…
  Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols