Techno

Several long-distance fibre-optic cables in France were “sabotaged” overnight, according to local police, causing widespread disruptions to internet services across the country.  The perpetrators remain at large, as the cat-and-mouse between police and criminals at the Olympics continues on the sidelines of sprints, swims, and shot puts.  The internet cables were severed early on Monday morning, said network provider Netalis on X. Junior Minister for Digital Affairs Marina Ferrari condemned the attacks, calling them “cowardly and irresponsible.”   Paris, where most of the Olympic events are taking place, has not been affected. Whether the attacks were intended to disrupt the Games… This story continues at The Next Web

The race for semiconductor leadership is on — and European chip startups are rising to the challenge. Europe is already home to high-profile chip companies including ASML, NXP, Arm, and Infineon. However, it lags behind in manufacturing capacity. The EU is currently producing about 10% of the world’s semiconductors. The UK accounted for 0.5% of chip sales globally in 2023. In an ongoing battle against chip giants in Taiwan, China, and the US, both the EU and the UK are doubling down on leveraging their particular strengths in R&D and chip design. The goal is to gain a competitive advantage… This story continues at The Next Web

Elon Musk could have yet another problem with the European Union. Musk’s X has enabled the Grok chatbot to be trained on data from any user. This feature is now on by default, which may breach EU rules. Deep within the settings of X, users unearthed evidence of the data harvesting. Besides a check box that was already ticked, they spotted the following text: “Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning.” This approach could violate the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The law restricts companies from… This story continues at The Next Web

Popular LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr has disabled location-based features for users within the Olympic village of the Paris Games, which kicked off today.  The measures are not designed to stop athletes hooking up between sprints, swims, or shot puts — they’re a safety precaution.  “If an athlete is not out or comes from a country where being LGBTQ+ is dangerous or illegal, using Grindr can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them on the app,” said Grindr. Grindr has disabled features like “Roam” or “Explore,” which allow users to… This story continues at The Next Web

The Paris Olympics 2024 kicked off today. But as the City of Light opens its gates to millions of spectators, officials are bracing themselves for a cyber war. Analysts predict that there could be as many as four billion cyber attacks at this year’s Games. The official Paris Olympics 2024 app is particularly vulnerable.  “This app handles vast amounts of personal and transactional data, making it a prime target for cybercriminals,” said Sakthi Mohan, cloud security lead at California-based Synopsys Software Integrity Group.  The Paris Olympics app has already been downloaded over 10 million times on Google Play. It allows… This story continues at The Next Web

Inside a hangar on the outskirts of Gothenburg, Sweden, lies the sleek metal frame of an electric plane poised to change the way we fly forever.   The hangar belongs to Heart Aerospace. The Swedish startup is building a hybrid-electric 30-passenger airliner called the ES-30. It could offer a cleaner, cheaper alternative to short-haul flights on routes across the world.   Unlike other battery-powered planes — like flying cars or air taxis — the ES-30 looks, for lack of a better word, pretty normal.  “A lot of companies obsess over how an electric aircraft will look. We are thinking about how an… This story continues at The Next Web