The Eclipse Foundation today revealed it has created a framework for the Open VSX Registry, for tools based on open source VS Code that scan for known malicious patterns, detect namespace impersonation and extension name spoofing, flag exposed credentials or embedded secrets and quarantine suspicious uploads for review.
Qunnect and Cisco have unveiled what they say is the first entanglement-swapping demonstration of its kind over deployed metro-scale fibre using a commercial quantum networking system. The demonstration combined Qunnect's room-temperature quantum hardware with Cisco's quantum networking software stack. The net result of the project is regarded by the partners as being able to bring practical quantum networks closer to scalable deployment, validating a spoke-and-hub model for scaling quantum networks through commercial datacentres.
The European Commission has launched a fresh consultation into open source, setting out its ambitions for Europe's developer communities to go beyond propping up US tech giants' platforms. In a "Call for Evidence" published this week, Brussels says the EU's reliance on non-European technology suppliers (read: US tech giants) has become a strategic liability, limiting choice, weakening competitiveness, and creating supply chain risks across everything from cloud services to critical infrastructure.
FOSDEM 2026 Amid growing interest in digital sovereignty and getting data out of the corporate cloud and into organizations' ownership, the Matrix open communication protocol is thriving. The project was co-founded by Matthew Hodgson and Amandine le Pape, and The Reg FOSS desk met both at this year's FOSDEM for a chat about what's happening with Matrix. The Register has covered Matrix and its commercial Element side quite a few times over the years,
NIST has developed a chip that reliably emits a single photon on demand. This ability will improve the efficiency of QKD (quantum key distribution) as we prepare for the arrival of quantum computers. Quantum computers will upend current cryptology by using Shor's algorithm to rapidly negate the current public/private key secure encryption methods. This has largely been solved by NIST's post quantum cryptology (PQC) algorithms.
Software development used to be simpler, with fewer choices about which platforms and languages to learn. You were either a Java, .NET, or LAMP developer. You focused on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Full-stack developers learned the intricacies of selected JavaScript frameworks, relational databases, and CI/CD tools. In the best of times, developers advanced their technology skills with their employer's funding and time to experiment. They attended conferences, took courses, and learned the low-code development platforms their employers invested in.
Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China Wen-Zhao Liu, Ya-Bin Zhou, Jiu-Peng Chen, Ao Teng, Xiao-Wen Han, Guang-Cheng Liu, Zhi-Jiong Zhang, Yi Yang, Feng-Guang Liu, Chao-Hui Xue, Bo-Wen Yang, Jin Yang, Chao Zeng, Yi-Zheng Zhen, Feihu Xu, Ye Wang, Yong Wan, Qiang Zhang & Jian-Wei Pan
This happened in the early 1990s, when I was a young engineer starting an internship at one of the companies that helped create the smart card industry. I believed my card was secure. I believed the system worked. But watching strangers casually extract something that was supposed to be secret and protected was a shock. It was also the moment I realized how insecure security actually is, and the devastating impact security breaches could have on individuals, global enterprises, and governments.