Malware that has remained undetected for six months is exploiting misconfigured Docker API ports to launch malicious payloads, while abusing the Dogecoin cryptocurrency blockchain in the process.

The malware, known as ‘Doki’, is targeting misconfigured containerised environments hosted on Azure, AWS, and a number of other major cloud platforms, according to Intezer researchers, with attackers able to find publicly accessible Docker API ports and exploit them to establish their own containers.

Two months ago, in PC Pro, I advised newly homeworking readers to “Get a Google account and a Chromebook”. This off-the-cuff suggestion made me realise how far I’ve drifted from the original personal computer revolution. That was about everyone having their own CPU and their own data, but I’ve since sold my soul to Google and I can’t say I miss it. When first turned on, my Asus Chromebook C301 sucked down all my personal data within five minutes, because I’d already placed it in Google Keep or Google Drive. I still have a Lenovo laptop but rarely use it, except via those same Google apps, and I don’t miss the excitement of Windows updates one bit. 

My love for Google Keep is no secret and it only grows stronger as features such as flawless voice dictation and pen annotations get added. Previously I had spent over 30 years looking for a viable free-form database to hold all the research data – articles, pictures, diagrams, books, links – that my work makes me accumulate. The task proved beyond any of the database products I tried, with Idealist, AskSam and the Firefox add-on ScrapBook lasting longer than most. Those with long memories might remember how Microsoft promised to put the retrieval abilities I need right into Windows, via an object-oriented file system, but it eventually chickened out.

Keep’s combination of categories, labels, colour coding and free text search gives me the flexible retrieval system I’ve been seeking, but it still isn’t quite enough on its own: While it can hold pictures and clickable links, they’re not as convenient as actual web pages. For a couple of decades, I religiously bookmarked pages, until my bookmark tree structure became as unwieldy as my on-disk folders. 

Nowadays, I just save pages to Pocket, which is by far the most useful gadget I have after Keep. A click on Pocket’s icon on the Chrome toolbar grabs a fully formatted page, complete with pictures and a button to go to the original if needed, making bookmarks redundant. I use the free version that supports tags similar to Keep’s labels, but the paid-for Premium edition has a raft of extra archival features for professional use. And, like Keep, it’s cross-platform so I can access my page library from Windows or a phone. 

Does the cloud make stuff easier to find? To an extent, yes. Save too many pages to Pocket and, as with bookmarks, you’ve merely shifted the complexity rather than removing it. Sometimes I fail to save something that didn’t feel important at the time, then discover months later that it was, at which point Chrome’s history function comes in handy. I use it most to reopen recent tabs closed by mistake (I have an itchy trigger finger) but by going to myactivity.google.com I can review searches years into the past – if I can remember the keywords. Failing that, it’s plain Google Search or the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, recently released as a Chrome extension.

My music nowadays comes entirely from Spotify. My own photos remain the main problem. I take thousands and store them both in the cloud and on a local hard disk, organised by camera (Sony A58, Minolta, Lumix), then location (park, Italy, Scotland). I’ve tried dedicated photo databases that organise by date, but find them of little help: place reminds me far more effectively than time. My best pictures still go onto Flickr, tagged thoroughly to exploit its rather superior search functions (it can even search by dominant colour). Pictures that I rate less Flickr-worthy I sometimes put on Facebook in themed albums, which also helps to find them. The technology does now exist to search by image-matching, but that’s mostly used by professionals who need to spot theft or plagiarism. I can only express what I’m looking for in words, such as “Pip fixing the Gardner diesel engine”. 

What’s required is a deep-AI analysis tool that can facially identify humans from their mugshots in my contacts, recognise objects such as tables, chairs or engines, can OCR any text in a picture (such as “Gardner” embossed on a cylinder block), and then output its findings as searchable text tags. It wouldn’t surprise me if some Google lab is working on it. I realise that if Google went bust, or the internet closed down, I’d be stuck with local data again, but if things get that bad then foraging for rats to eat will probably be a higher priority. 

So, while I still stand by my original answer recommendation to buy a Chromebook, my more thoughtful advice would now be this: keep your feet on the ground and your data in the cloud(s).

Orange and Google Cloud have announced a strategic partnership that will cover data, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud computing services.

Google Cloud will contribute its expertise in cloud, analytics, and AI tools, while Orange will use the help of Google technologies to manufacture a state of the art data analytics and machine-learning platform.

Targeting the B2B, B2C, and wholesale markets, the partnership aims to provide “flexible, secure and cutting-edge solutions”, as well as take advantage of the 5G rollout in Europe by developing edge computing services.

The partnership is expected to benefit Orange by expanding its Orange Business Services’ portfolio, while Google Cloud is hoping the deal will strengthen its presence in Europe. 

Orange and Google Cloud are also planning to jointly create an Innovation Lab, which will enable new industry solution development based on data and AI, as well as a Centre of Excellence that will provide training in data, AI and cloud services for several thousand Orange employees.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the partnership “will help pave the way for new advanced cloud and edge computing services for the telecommunications industry in Europe”. 

“We look forward to working together with Orange to bring new services and applications to customers and businesses alike, while also continuing to grow our support for European enterprises in their digital transformation journeys,” he added.

In a statement, Orange chairman and CEO Stephane Richard said that the French telecom giant is “pleased to partner with Google to accelerate its data and AI transformation and continue towards a better service for its customers”. 

“Google has been a long term partner of Orange and, as Google is eager to invest in Europe – and especially in France – to develop new data centres, this is the perfect time to work on new services and opportunities in French and European markets”, he added.

The news comes weeks after Google Cloud signed a letter of intent with Deutsche Bank, revealing plans to sign a multi-year contract within the next few months. The partnership will accelerate the German bank’s cloud migration and transform its IT architecture, including optimisation of the bank’s current systems in a phased approach.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the general availability of Fraud Detector, a machine learning-powered service that helps organisations to tackle fraudulent activity.

First launched at Amazon Re:invent last December, Fraud Detector uses the same technology that Amazon employs to fight fraudulent activity on its e-commerce marketplace. 

The tool requires no machine learning expertise, according to AWS, with Fraud Detector providing a selection of ready-made fraud detection AI templates that cover different use cases. To train their model, organisations simply upload historical data covering both fraudulent and legitimate transactions to AWS S3.

Businesses with more advanced requirements can use their own models with the service using an integration with SageMaker, Amazon’s managed AI platform. 

AWS charges no up-front payments, long-term commitments, or infrastructure to manage with Amazon Fraud Detector, and customers pay only for their actual usage of the service.

Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President, Machine Learning, said: “Customers of all sizes and across all industries have told us they spend a lot of time and effort trying to decrease the amount of fraud occurring on their websites and applications.

«By leveraging 20 years of experience detecting fraud coupled with powerful machine learning technology, we’re excited to bring customers Amazon Fraud Detector so they can automatically detect potential fraud, save time and money, and improve customer experiences – with no machine learning experience required.”

Amazon Fraud Detector, which counts GoDaddyy and Truevo among is early adopters, is available in the US, Ireland, Sinapore and Sydney, with availability in additional regions in the coming months. 

The launch of Fraud Detector comes after Amazon made CodeGuru generally available. This is an AI-powered code review service that uses programme analysis and machine learning to detect potential defects that are tricky to find and recommend fixes in Java code. 

Google is planning to allow its 200,000 full-time and contract workers to continue remote working until at least July next year due to the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai decided to extend Google’s remote working plans to the middle of 2021 following a meeting with senior company executives last week, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

«To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we’ll be extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office,» Pichai wrote in a memo, as reported by CNN. 

«I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months.»

The move to keep Google employees working from home for another full year, on a voluntary basis, would represent a reversal against its plans to begin re-opening company offices in a limited capacity from this month. 

The company announced in May that it would start to open more offices in more cities from 6 July, giving workers the chance to return to a sense of normality, so long as health and safety measures were in place.

Developments with regards to the continued spread of coronavirus across the US has seemingly forced the company’s hand in scrapping these plans and extending the work from home option for another year.

Google’s measures have come after fellow tech rivals, including Facebook, announced permanent changes to their work culture which includes a degree of remote working. 

The social media giant told workers in May, for example, that half of its staff would work from home permanently by 2030. Twitter, similarly, has told its employees they can choose to work from home indefinitely as the coronavirus crisis continues to reshape the way we work.

Google is building a subsea fibre-optic network cable that connects the UK, US and Spain as part of an effort to improve its services. 

The ‘Grace Hopper’ cable, Google’s fourth privately-owned undersea cable, will run from New York and split off to Bilbao in Spain and Cornwall in the UK.

Underwater cables carry 98% of the world’s data, according to Google, and are a vital part of global communications. They are typically built by groups of communications firms which then charge other companies to use them.

The Grace Hopper cable will be one of the first new cables to connect the US and UK since 2003 and will power Google services like Meet, Gmail and Google Cloud. It also marks the tech giant’s first investment in a private subsea cable route to the UK and its first-ever route to Spain. The Bilbao landing point will also integrate an upcoming Google Cloud region in Madrid. 

The cable will be equipped with 16 fibre pairs (32 fibres), which is a significant upgrade to the internet infrastructure connecting the US with Europe, according to Google. A contract to build the cable was signed earlier this year with Eatontown, a New Jersey-based subsea cable provider and the project is expected to be completed by 2022.

The name of the cable is a nod to American computer science pioneer Grace Brewster Murray Hopper who is best known for her work on one of the first linkers (compilers). She’s also famous for finding an actual bug in a programme when a trapped moth short-circuited an early Harvard Mark II computer. 

Jayne Stowell, who oversees construction of the company’s undersea cable projects, said Google needed an internet connection that could be relied upon.

«It’s not enough to have a single cable because any element in the network can break from time to time, and if it’s 8,000 metres under the sea, it takes a while to repair,» she told the BBC.