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Xbox’s clever disc-to-digital feature was 15 years in the making
Xbox has launched a disc-to-digital feature allowing users to convert physical game discs into digital copies, a capability that has taken 15 years to develop. The feature represents a significant shift as both major console makers move towards all-digital ecosystems, particularly following Sony’s announcement that it will discontinue PlayStation discs in 2028. It also underscores…
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Revolut reportedly facing $3m ransom demand after hackers steal hundreds of customers’ data
Revolut, Europe’s largest financial technology company, has fallen victim to a sophisticated data breach orchestrated through a compromised Italian government email system. Hackers posing as government officials contacted Revolut staff to obtain personal details of cryptocurrency customers, with attackers subsequently demanding $3 million to prevent publication of the stolen data. The incident raises concerns about…
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Sandbanks property developer is cleared of strangling ‘Amazonian’ wife after she drew up divorce wish-list of £1m home, £35,000 Range Rover and £60,000 a year
Paul Pressland, a Sandbanks property developer, has been acquitted by a jury at Salisbury Crown Court of strangling his estranged wife Gemma Martin during a domestic row on 1 December 2024. The case centred on a dispute arising from the couple’s divorce proceedings, which became heated after hosting Martin’s parents for Sunday lunch. The jury…
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The Bank of England is shaking up its bond sales – why does it matter?
The Bank of England plans to change how it unwinds quantitative easing by selling government bonds directly to the Treasury rather than private investors. The proposal aims to reduce disruption in fragile bond markets and give the Treasury more flexibility over the timing and type of gilts issued, potentially lowering borrowing costs. The Bank’s gilt…
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Afghan migrant who raped two 14-year-old girls at his flat after grooming them on Snapchat and plying them with vodka is jailed for 14 years
Sultani Bakatash, a 29-year-old Afghan migrant, was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment at Bolton Crown Court following his conviction for raping two 14-year-old girls. He groomed one girl via Snapchat over three months before inviting both teenagers to his flat in Bolton on 6 December, where he plied them with vodka until they were unconscious…
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London property manager breach may have exposed bank details and lockbox codes
London property manager City Relay says attackers accessed its Metabase Cloud instance twice and may have extracted customers’ personal, financial and property-access data. The incident matters because the information potentially included bank details, account passwords, key locations and lockbox codes, creating both fraud and physical security risks. The exposed financial information may include account numbers,…
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Microsoft configuration change leaves SharePoint pages drawing a blank
Microsoft rolled back a configuration change after it stopped some users loading SharePoint Online sites and pages on 16 September. The incident highlights the risks of deploying unvalidated changes to business-critical cloud services, particularly as Microsoft has experienced similar failures across Azure and Microsoft 365. The disruption lasted from 1604 to 1730 GMT and produced…
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Meta ordered to remove UK deepfakes as oversight board criticises ‘inadequate’ safeguards
Meta’s oversight board has ordered Facebook to remove two AI-generated deepfake videos involving a Scottish Labour councillor and a Muslim campaign volunteer. It said the videos should not have remained online and criticised Meta’s safeguards as “consistently and fundamentally inadequate”, warning that deepfakes are increasingly used to harass women and spread misinformation. One video falsely…
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After being sidelined, Boeing’s Starliner to get starring role in NASA’s spaceflight plans
NASA will announce plans to order two additional crewed missions on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and provide financial support to fix its thruster problems and certify it on a new rocket. This move comes as SpaceX has privately indicated—and is now publicly confirming—its intention to retire its Crew Dragon spacecraft by 2030, leaving NASA without a…
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Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse
Microsoft AI chief executive Mustafa Suleyman says AI safety requires more than aligning models to human values, arguing that containment and limits on AI agency are equally important. He warns that rapid progress could produce systems vastly more capable than today’s models, making regulation and safeguards increasingly urgent. The discussion follows Microsoft’s 37-page “Humanist AI…