BORK!BORK!BORK! A blast from the past greets customers at a coastal McDonald’s, or is it just that the kiosk is seeking a return to the happier and simpler times of 2009? An eagle-eyed Register reader spotted a very unhappy terminal at a branch of the McDonald’s fast-food chain in Worthing, England. Where a customer might normally smear a finger over suggestions for ways to sate their desire for grease, the display instead reveals the kiosk’s clearly PC origins: a BIOS utility. It’s not clear what has befallen the kiosk, though something has happened to the hardware that has sent it to the utility screen, which is normally accessible by holding down a key or combination of keys during the boot process. Although the BIOS is dated 2016, the system date is currently set to 2009. Worthing is a town on the south coast of England, occasionally unfairly and unkindly referred to as “God’s waiting room” due to the large retiree population it once had. While the town has long since shed that sobriquet (although it still lacks the hip and trendy traits of neighboring Brighton), it seems that there is one place that would very much like to turn back the clock. McDonald’s. Cast your mind back to 2009. Bitcoin was launched, an Airbus A320 ditched onto the Hudson River with no fatalities, and US President Barack Obama was sworn in. Best not to think about how much a Bitcoin acquired then might be worth now. 2009 was also the year Microsoft released Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista and the precursor to the widely derided Windows 8. Microsoft might not have realized it at the time, but this was arguably peak Windows. Sure, Windows 95 was arguably more of a cultural “moment,” and XP was an undeniable milestone, but 7 reached heights Microsoft has not matched since. 2009 was also a few years before McDonald’s began rolling out touchscreen kiosks to replace the experience of peering over the shoulder of the person behind the counter to see which foodstuffs were ready to go. Today, the person behind the counter is far less visible, obscured by a line of delivery riders collecting app orders. The BIOS utility screen, however, looks back to an earlier time. Or, possibly, Worthing is simply 17 years behind the rest of the world. ®
Category Archives: tech
Explainer: Why your legacy storage is choking your expensive GPU
When your accelerators sit idle, the problem usually isn’t the chips. It’s everything between them and the data. Rather than thinking purely about GPU performance, it’s time to think about storage as an active engine for throughput, rather than a passive archive. Legacy storage architectures aren’t built that way. What is GPU starvation? A starved GPU is an accelerator waiting around with nothing to do because data isn’t arriving quickly enough. Sometimes the network is choking; in other cases, the next batch of training or inference data can’t get off storage fast enough. Modern AI training and inference workloads demand sustained high-bandwidth, low-latency feeds that traditional storage was never designed to deliver. How do companies solve the AI storage problem? In many cases, badly. To compensate for slow, passive storage, teams copy and stage datasets into whichever environment can run the next experiment, paying what HPE calls a “staging tax” of extra hops and latency. When GPU utilization drops, those expensive accelerators become idle capital. Why does this matter now? The economics have caught up with the problem. Gartner found that only 28 percent of AI infrastructure projects fully deliver ROI. Storage increasingly shows up as the bottleneck that drives those numbers down. Pilots that ran fine on small, curated datasets hit throughput constraints the moment they scale to distributed jobs, longer training runs, and frequent checkpointing. That’s where a lot of programs stall. Instead of relying on passive legacy storage, HPE advocates an “AI-ready data architecture” that gives storage the attention it needs. What does an AI-ready data architecture actually look like? Unify access first. Before chasing raw drive speed, fix the fragmentation. A unified access layer gives teams a consistent view of data across hybrid environments, so pipelines stop depending on constant copying and rehydration. Enrich on the way in. Unstructured data should arrive ready for consumption. Extracting vectors and metadata in the ingest path makes large datasets searchable immediately and exposing that metadata through open standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets agents and AI workloads discover governed data without manual tagging. Engineer for sustained throughput. All-NVMe, disaggregated designs paired with GPUDirect paths deliver data straight to accelerators and bypass the I/O bottlenecks that throttle utilization. End to end governance. Apply consistent policies, lineage tracking, and access controls across distributed data to ensure data is trusted, auditable, and used responsibly wherever it resides. What’s the payoff for the business? Three things change: Iteration speeds up because engineers stop wrangling and start training. Capex stops decaying because the accelerators bought at premium rates actually run at the utilization that justified the invoice. Pilots can scale into durable production systems instead of expensive lessons. That assumes you’ve structured everything else in the stack correctly, from networking to model choice. The path to AI that works at scale runs through data pipelines feeding the silicon, not only through the silicon itself. Sponsored by HPE.
Germany went off the rails as wireless outage saw all trains cancelled
Train services are resuming across Germany this morning, after rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) last night shut down operations after its wireless network failed. At 10:30 PM local time on Tuesday night, DB advised that its GSM-R network was down, meaning all trains had to be held at stations. We understand that even suburban trains ground to a halt. GSM-R is a version of the 2G GSM standard tuned to the needs of rail operators, who use it to power private networks that carry information necessary to keep their services rolling. The tech is considered obsolete and DB knows it because the company has already signed with Nokia for a 5G replacement that will use the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) – a move also under consideration in the UK. For now, however, DB needs its GSM-R to connect drivers with signalling services – so three minutes after midnight on Wednesday morning the carrier promised to issue taxi and hotel vouchers to passengers. At that time, DB also said it had found the cause of the outage and was working to fix it. The company’s techies moved quickly as the network came back online at 00:50. As of 6:30 AM, however, DB warned “some isolated disruptions may still occur” and advised passengers they’ll need to check that their connections will run on time. There’s no indication the incident was the result of a cyberattack and The Register can find no reference to cut cables or other physical layer incidents that could have caused a nationwide outage. Whatever went wrong isn’t a good look as any network powering critical infrastructure is supposed to have layers of redundancy to ensure resilience. At least the org made heroes of its tech team. “Our IT experts worked tirelessly to resolve the issue – successfully,” reads a company statement. ®
You have got to be KDDI-ng – Japanese telco exposes 14.2 million managed email credentials
Japanese telco KDDI has messed up by allowing an attacker to access systems powering an email service it manages for itself and other local ISPs, and which stores info on up to 14.2 million users. The company yesterday posted a confession [PDF] that it detected unauthorized access to the email system it offers to third-party customers on June 17th. Machine translation of the confession suggests that KDDI investigated the situation and found attackers exploited a vulnerability in third-party software used on the email service, without claiming that vuln was a zero-day it had no chance of defending or an explanation of why it was running vulnerable software. There’s some good news because KDDI was able to prevent further intrusion on the same day it noticed the attack, and says it has bolstered its defences to prevent future intrusions. But the carrier also fears that up to 14.2 million email addresses and passwords may have leaked and therefore warned that third parties may have obtained personal data. Thankfully, the company had hashed and encrypted the passwords – so users only have to fear phishing and identity theft, instead of something nastier. However, some of the data KDDI thinks may have leaked pertains to dormant accounts or others that users cancelled, meaning some potential victims will be hard to contact if the attackers have indeed stolen data. KDDI is one user of the hacked platform, and also provides it to Japanese ISPs STNet, JCOM, Chubu Telecommunications Co., Nifty Corporation, and BIGLOBE. Those companies now get to explain KDDI’s failure to their own customers, and perhaps also have the chance to revisit any other outsourcing deals with the carrier. Others who rely on KDDI to provide them with various services also get to ask the company some stern questions about whether its other platforms are secure. The carrier, meanwhile, says it’s informed the relevant authorities of the situation, but is yet to complete an investigation so remains unaware of the full extent of the mess. ®
Chinese supercomputer using local processors heads TOP500 list
The TOP500 list of Earth’s mightiest supercomputers has a new leader: the 2.198 Exaflop/s LineShine machine housed at the National Supercomputer Center (NSC) in Shenzhen, which took the top spot without using any kit from Nvidia, Intel, or AMD. Which is not to say that LineShine is an entirely Chinese creation. As explained in a pre-press paper, the machine’s LX2 processors are a local effort but use Armv9 designs – so chalk up a win for Blighty, the home of Arm. The machine also runs KylinOS – a Linux distribution that features contributions from around the world. The paper reveals that LineShine comprises 20,480 computing nodes, and that each LX2 processor “integrates two compute dies (304 cores total) and eight on-package HBM stacks (32 GB, 4 TB/s aggregate bandwidth).” “Each compute die contains 152 cores and 128 GB of off-package DDR memory organized into four NUMA domains,” the paper adds. “A dedicated SDMA engine handles data movement between DDR and HBM. The LX2 supports FP64/FP32/FP16/INT8 via SME and SVE units, delivering up to 60.3/120.6 TFLOPS in FP64/FP32. Nodes are interconnected via the LingQi high-speed network with a dual-plane multi-rail fat-tree topology, offering 1.6 Tb/s bandwidth per node.” That network is also a Chinese creation, from the minds at Hangzhou LingQi Technology Co. LineShine became the first system on the TOP500 to exceed two exaflops of sustained double-precision performance using CPUs only and the curators of the list think it could do better in future tests, because this time around it reached about 80 percent of its 2.736 Exaflop/s theoretical peak in tests conducted in preparation for this iteration of the TOP500 list. News that LineShine topped the supercomputing charts comes as China’s government increasingly steers local organizations towards buying made-in-China tech. Beijing wants to decrease dependency on foreign products, because China has gone all-in on AI and other technologies to boost economic growth and enhance the capabilities of its military. China’s Communist Party understands that reliance on imports can stymie those ambitions, with the USA’s ban on GPU sales to the Middle Kingdom offering ample evidence of the need to control tech supply chains. And now Beijing can point to its policies producing the most powerful single computer on the planet. It’s conceivable that China could do even better in the future, as its GPU industry is nascent and currently producing products whose performance trails Nvidia and AMD by four or five years. Those two paragons of US computing power, along with Intel, dominate this version of the TOP500 list – as has been the case for years. China is therefore on the march, but is a long way from global dominance. Our sibling site The Next Platform has extensive analysis of the TOP500 list here. ®
White House drastically shortens deadline for dropping quantum-vulnerable crypto
The White House is drastically shortening the deadline for government agencies and organizations to adopt new quantum-resistant encryption systems that will withstand attacks that use quantum computers, as the federal government seeks to protect decades’ worth of secrets belonging to militaries, banks, governments, and most individuals on Earth.
The executive order, titled Securing the Nation against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks, requires computing systems for “high-value assets” and “high-impact systems” to transition to post-quantum cryptographic key establishment schemes by December 31, 2030, and to quantum-safe digital signature schemes by December 31, 2031.
Heading off a significant threat
The new deadline, which for many organizations is about five years sooner than the previous one, comes on the heels of recent research showing that the resources and cost for building a cryptographically relevant quantum computer are far less than previous consensus estimates. In response, Google, Cloudflare, and other companies recently tightened their timelines for moving off vulnerable systems to 2029.
Oracle’s 21,000 layoffs help drive its debt-fueled AI investments
The growing use of AI contributed to Oracle laying off 21,000 workers in a year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday.
In its annual regulatory filing for the fiscal year ending May 31, Oracle said it has 141,000 full-time employees. In its 2025 filing, Oracle said it had 162,000 employees. The reported 12.9 percent reduction followed March reports of mass layoffs at the database management software company.
“[T]he adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce,” the filing reads.
Following user outcry, AMD reinstates memory encryption in consumer CPUs
Consumer AMD CPUs will once again offer encryption protections against physical attacks after facing user backlash for silently removing the feature.
As Ars reported last week, AMD stripped the protection, known as TSME, from consumer Ryzen processors. Short for Transparent Secure Memory Encryption, TSME encrypts the entire contents stored in memory, making the data useless to adversaries performing cold boot attacks and similar intrusions requiring physical access.
Now you see it, now you don’t, soon you’ll see it again
About a decade ago, AMD added TSME to its high-end CPUs. Over the next few years, AMD added the protection to lower-end processors, including the consumer version of its Ryzen chips, a CPU that costs less than the Pro version. Over the years, users of these lower-end chips have gotten used to the added security, although some security experts (and plenty of novices, too) note that consumer chips are far less likely to be targeted by physical attacks. Recently and without warning or notice, the lower-end line of AMD chips suddenly dropped the protection, and it did so in a way that was impossible to detect on Windows machines and required a fair amount of technical work when using Linux. AMD last week declined to explain or acknowledge the change.
Microsoft discovers new lightweight backdoor that steals cryptocurrency
Microsoft says it has detected new self-propagating malware that spreads through USB drives in search of cryptocurrency credentials, which it then sends to attacker-controlled servers.
The company named the worm Crypto Clipper because it monitors the contents of device clipboards for patterns consistent with wallet addresses or seed phrases. When found, the malware also takes five screenshots over a 10-second period. Both the credentials and the screenshots are then sent to the attacker through Tor, a network protocol that provides anonymous routing by sending traffic through redundant nodes so logs can’t capture both the sending and receiving IP addresses. Crypto Clipper establishes the Tor connection by using a SOCKS5 proxy, a network protocol that sends traffic through a proxy server, which then forwards it to its final destination.
A lightweight backdoor
“The execution of this clipper is notable because it does not depend on a traditional installer or exposed IP-based C2 infrastructure,” Microsoft said Thursday. “Instead, it deploys a portable Tor client, routes traffic through a local SOCKS5 proxy, and blends data theft with remote code execution, turning a financially motivated stealer into a lightweight backdoor.”
Apple patches high-severity eavesdropping vulnerability in Beats Studio Buds
Apple has updated its Beats Studio Buds wireless earbuds to patch a high-severity vulnerability that could be exploited by nearby hackers to eavesdrop on users.
The vulnerability, CVE-2025-20701, allowed improper authentication in the firmware running on the Bluetooth-related chips, which made it possible for people within signal range to impersonate devices that had previously been paired with the earbuds. The researchers demonstrated this in a series of end-to-end attacks that allowed them to eavesdrop on conversations or sounds within earshot of the phone microphone.
Apple joins the patch party
“Impact: An attacker within Bluetooth range may be able to listen through the microphone of a device which is not yet paired and actively seeking pair requests,” Apple said in a Tuesday security advisory. The fix is contained in Beats Firmware Update 1B211, which is delivered automatically while headphones are paired with and within Bluetooth range of a user’s iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Users can check their firmware version by going to Settings on their device, navigating to Bluetooth, and tapping the info button next to the headphones.