European Commission broke data protection law with Microsoft Office 365 – duh

The European Commission has been reprimanded for infringing data protection regulations when using Microsoft 365. The rebuke came from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and is the culmination of an investigation that kicked off in May 2021, following the Schrems II judgement. According to the EDPS, the EC infringed several data protection regulations, including Read more about European Commission broke data protection law with Microsoft Office 365 – duh[…]

Millions of research papers at risk of disappearing from the Internet

More than one-quarter of scholarly articles are not being properly archived and preserved, a study of more than seven million digital publications suggests. The findings, published in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication on 24 January1, indicate that systems to preserve papers online have failed to keep pace with the growth of research output. Read more about Millions of research papers at risk of disappearing from the Internet[…]

Satellites Step Up After Red Sea Internet Cables Get Severed

[…] Earlier this week, four out of 15 communication cables were cut, disrupting network traffic that flows through the Red Sea. The damaged cables affected 25% of traffic between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, according to Hong Kong telecoms company HGC Global Communications. The cause of the damage is still unknown, and the company Read more about Satellites Step Up After Red Sea Internet Cables Get Severed[…]

Wyze says camera breach let 13,000 customers briefly see into other people’s homes

Last week, co-founder David Crosby said that “so far” the company had identified 14 people who were able to briefly see into a stranger’s property because they were shown an image from someone else’s Wyze camera. Now we’re being told that number of affected customers has ballooned to 13,000. The revelation came from an email Read more about Wyze says camera breach let 13,000 customers briefly see into other people’s homes[…]

apple pay phone

Apple Pay, Apple Card and Wallet were down for some users this morning – again

Apple’s financial services, including Apple Pay, Apple Cash, Apple Card and Wallet, experienced service disruptions for some users between 6:15 AM and 6:49 AM Eastern this morning, according to the company’s System Status page. As AppleInsider notes, it’s unclear how widespread the issues were, but the company has experienced intermittent Apple Pay issues earlier this Read more about Apple Pay, Apple Card and Wallet were down for some users this morning – again[…]

Google calls Drive data loss “fixed,” locks forum threads saying otherwise

Google is dealing with its second “lost data” fiasco in the past few months. This time, it’s Google Drive, which has been mysteriously losing files for some people. Google acknowledged the issue on November 27, and a week later, it posted what it called a fix. It doesn’t feel like Google is describing this issue Read more about Google calls Drive data loss “fixed,” locks forum threads saying otherwise[…]

Months of Google Drive files disappearing randomly

Google Drive users are reporting files mysteriously disappearing from the service, with some netizens on the goliath’s support forums claiming six or more months of work have unceremoniously vanished. The issue has been rumbling for a few days, with one user logging into Google Drive and finding things as they were in May 2023. According Read more about Months of Google Drive files disappearing randomly[…]

Rivian update bricks infotainment – corp comms quickly and publicly on Reddit

Hi All, We made an error with the 2023.42 OTA update – a fat finger where the wrong build with the wrong security certificates was sent out. We cancelled the campaign and we will restart it with the proper software that went through the different campaigns of beta testing. Service will be contacting impacted customers Read more about Rivian update bricks infotainment – corp comms quickly and publicly on Reddit[…]

Microsoft admits ‘power issue’ downed Azure in West Europe

Microsoft techies are trying to recover storage nodes for a “small” number of customers following a “power issue” on October 20 that triggered Azure service disruptions and ruined breakfast for those wanting to use hosted virtual machines or SQL DB. The degradation began at 0731 UTC on Friday when Microsoft spotted the unspecified power problem, Read more about Microsoft admits ‘power issue’ downed Azure in West Europe[…]

Microsoft Comes Under Blistering Criticism For ‘Grossly Irresponsible’ Azure Security

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Microsoft has once again come under blistering criticism for the security practices of Azure and its other cloud offerings, with the CEO of security firm Tenable saying Microsoft is “grossly irresponsible” and mired in a “culture of toxic obfuscation.” The comments from Amit Yoran, chairman and Read more about Microsoft Comes Under Blistering Criticism For ‘Grossly Irresponsible’ Azure Security[…]

Microsoft confirms June Outlook and OneDrive outages were caused by DDoS attacks

Earlier this month, a group known as Anonymous Sudan took credit for a service outage that disrupted access to Outlook, OneDrive and a handful of other Microsoft online services. After initially sharing little information about the incident, the company confirmed late Friday it had been the target of a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks. In Read more about Microsoft confirms June Outlook and OneDrive outages were caused by DDoS attacks[…]

Microsoft 365 and Teams hit in global partial outage – again

[…] The problem kicked off this morning with Redmond saying it was looking into errors within its caching infrastructure. In an advisory, the Windows goliath wrote “some users may be intermittently unable to view or access web apps in Microsoft 365.” A range of Microsoft 365 online services are affected, such as Excel, the company Read more about Microsoft 365 and Teams hit in global partial outage – again[…]

Outlook attachments count toward OneDrive capacity so MS may just turn off your email

Some users of Microsoft’s free Outlook hosted service are finding they can no longer send or receive emails because of how the Windows giant now calculates the storage of attachments. Microsoft account holders are allowed to hold up to 15GB in their cloud-hosted email, which until recently included text and attachments, and 5GB in their Read more about Outlook attachments count toward OneDrive capacity so MS may just turn off your email[…]

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube Endure Outages

Did someone actually break the internet? It sorta seems like it. Users of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, some of the web’s biggest platforms, reported experiencing major issues on Wednesday, with many losing access to basic features and functions. Reports first poured in concerning Twitter, where users reported being met with a message telling them Read more about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube Endure Outages[…]

Outlook, Teams, Calendar down for >5 hours

[…] According to outage tracker DownDetector, reports began coming in of users facing a 500 error and being unable to send, receive or search email through Outlook.com from about 4am UTC, peaking at 8 and 9am as Europeans reached their desks. Microsoft confirmed the outage on its service health website, saying: “We’re applying targeted mitigations Read more about Outlook, Teams, Calendar down for >5 hours[…]

High-powered lasers can be used to steer lightning strikes

[…] European researchers have successfully tested a system that uses terawatt-level laser pulses to steer lighting toward a 26-foot rod. It’s not limited by its physical height, and can cover much wider areas — in this case, 590 feet — while penetrating clouds and fog. The design ionizes nitrogen and oxygen molecules, releasing electrons and Read more about High-powered lasers can be used to steer lightning strikes[…]

Microsoft mistake took down Exchange Online and Teams on 2/12/22

Microsoft’s flagship cloudy productivity services are down across the Asia-Pacific region. “Our initial investigation indicates that there our service infrastructure is performing at a sub-optimal level, resulting in impact to general service functionality” states an advisory time-stamped 12:41PM on December 2. The incident means customers of Exchange Online may not be able to access the Read more about Microsoft mistake took down Exchange Online and Teams on 2/12/22[…]

Scientists zap clouds with electricity to make them rain

A new experiment has shown that zapping clouds with electrical charge can alter droplet sizes in fog or, potentially, help a constipated cloud to rain. Last year Giles Harrison, from the University of Reading, and colleagues from the University of Bath, spent many early mornings chasing fogs in the Somerset Levels, flying uncrewed aircraft into Read more about Scientists zap clouds with electricity to make them rain[…]

Fitbit accounts are being replaced by Google accounts

New Fitbit users will be required to sign-up with a Google account, from next year, while it also appears one will be needed to access some of the new features in years to come. Google has been slowly integrating Fitbit into the fold since buying the company back in November 2019. Indeed, the latest products Read more about Fitbit accounts are being replaced by Google accounts[…]

Roombas don’t work if an iRobot server is down

That floor won’t clean itself… well, quite literally it won’t, especially if the vacuum robot you bought to clean the floor won’t hop off its dock when the servers are down Users started reporting issues with their Roomba app around midday Friday. The status page for iRobot, the maker of Roomba, identified there were outages Read more about Roombas don’t work if an iRobot server is down[…]

Cloudflare explains hour long outage which broke a lot of internets

The incident began at 0627 UTC (2327 Pacific Time) and it took until 0742 UTC (0042 Pacific) before the company managed to bring all its datacenters back online and verify they were working correctly. During this time a variety of sites and services relying on Cloudflare went dark while engineers frantically worked to undo the Read more about Cloudflare explains hour long outage which broke a lot of internets[…]

Insteon is down and may not be coming back – yay cloud, your hardware is now a paperweight

Is your Insteon smart home system down? I’m getting reports from dozens of Insteon users that as of Friday their smart home hubs have stopped working. So far, none of them have heard from the company, and Insteon’s Twitter account hasn’t been updated since June 2021. I reached out to Rob Lilleness, the president and Read more about Insteon is down and may not be coming back – yay cloud, your hardware is now a paperweight[…]

Apple Maps, Music, iMessage, App Store, and iCloud Are Down

Apple’s services came back online in the late afternoon. Apple’s system status page shows that all of the services that had previously been listed as “down” are now back in the green. It’s still unclear what happened exactly, and Apple never returned Gizmodo’s email for comment on the situation. Apple is experiencing massive technical difficulties, Read more about Apple Maps, Music, iMessage, App Store, and iCloud Are Down[…]

Amazon’s AWS logs third outage this month, affecting Slack, Epic Games Store, Asana and more

Amazon’s crucial web services business AWS has experienced problems today due to a power outage, affecting services like Slack, Imgur, and the Epic Games store for some users. It’s not looking good if you’re working from home, with some Slack users unable to view or upload images and work management tool Asana also hit by Read more about Amazon’s AWS logs third outage this month, affecting Slack, Epic Games Store, Asana and more[…]