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Articles for Category Tag - Security

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Virgin Media O2 Warn Customers to Watch Out for Fake 5G SIM Upgrade Emails

25th February, 2026 (4 Comments)

Customers of broadband and mobile giant VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) have been warned to keep an eye out for a new round of phishing emails, which use the retirement of O2’s 3G network as an excuse to falsely invite subscribers to “upgrade your current SIM card to a new 5G-ready SIM“.

Fibrus Visit School for Surf Smart Stay Safe Workshop

Broadband Altnet Fibrus Launch Internet Safety Scheme for N.Ireland

24th February, 2026 (2 Comments)

Infracapital-backed alternative broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a gigabit-speed full fibre (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, has today launched a new campaign to help keep children in N.Ireland safe online. The ‘Surf Smart Stay Safe’ campaign is being delivered through a variety of workshops in Primary Schools across the country.

O2 UK and McAfee Launch McAfee Protect Advanced for Mobile Users

19th February, 2026 (6 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today launched a bespoke family protection and security package for up to 10 devices in the shape of McAfee Protect Advanced, although it will come at an extra monthly cost for most, but not all, of their existing subscribers.

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Government Set to Restrict UK Children’s Use of Internet VPNs and Social Media

16th February, 2026 (52 Comments)

The UK Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, has today proposed last minute amendments to two Bills that will enable the Government to set a minimum age limit for social media (i.e. greater use of Age Verification), as well as options to age restrict or limit children’s use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN), where it “undermines safety protections and changing the age of digital consent“.

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UK Mobile Operators Blocked 97.1 Million Scam SMS Messages in Jan 2026

12th February, 2026 (5 Comments)

Industry trade body Mobile UK, which represents EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK), has revealed that mobile operators have, to date, blocked an overall total of 2.7 billion scam SMS (text) messages (2,761,912,183 to be exact) from reaching customers and 97.1 Million of that total occurred in January 2026 alone.

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Openreach Rolls Out New Safety App to Help Protect UK Broadband Engineers

2nd February, 2026 (13 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today announced the launch of a new mobile safety app to help combat a surge in abuse and assaults on its UK telecoms engineers. Since April last year, there’s been around 700 incidents of either physical or verbal assaults and threats, including some cases where people have needed time off work to recover.

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BT Backs New Apple iOS 26.3 Feature to Limit UK Location Data on Mobile

28th January, 2026 (13 Comments)

Apple’s next major iOS software update for iPhones – v26.3 – looks set to include an interesting new feature, which aims to improve user privacy by limiting the amount of location data available to mobile network operators. The move is apparently set to be supported by EE (BT) in the United Kingdom, although no other UK operators are currently named.

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House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

26th January, 2026 (64 Comments)

Last week saw the House of Lords pass a vote that would, if approved by the Government, introduce an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (CWSB) that aims to “prohibit the provision” of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to children (under 18s) in the UK. The goal is to stop children allegedly using VPNs to bypass age verification systems.

VIDEO Police Catch Three Openreach Broadband Cable Thieves in the Act

22nd January, 2026 (14 Comments)

Bang to rights! The West Midlands Police have a reason to be cheerful today after they arrested a gang of three people who were in the process of trying to steal Openreach’s (BT) copper broadband and phone cables from an underground site in central Birmingham, which most likely caused some significant and costly connectivity problems for locals.

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ScamBlocker Launch Own UK Digital Landline Home Phone Service

22nd January, 2026 (3 Comments)

Communications platform provider SONIQ Labs has launched a new “AI-powered digital landline service” called ScamBlocker Home, which connects via your existing broadband router and promises to protect UK households from telephone fraud by screening unknown callers before the phone rings.

2,500 Lincolnshire UK Premises Offline After Cable Thieves Strike Openreach

21st January, 2026 (8 Comments)

Some 2,500 properties around the village of Moulton Chapel in Lincolnshire (England) are suffering “significant disruption” to their broadband and phone connectivity, which occurred after criminals cut and then stole an unspecified amount of Openreach’s copper telecoms cable in the area.

Broadband ISP YouFibre UK Set to Block Internet Email Port 25 from Friday UPDATE

14th January, 2026 (18 Comments)

Internet service provider YouFibre, which is one of the main retail outlets for Netomnia’s growing national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network, has informed customers that they intend to impose a block against internet traffic on Port 25 (SMTP) from Friday (16th January 2026).

Toxic Gas Disrupts Openreach’s UK Broadband Network in Aldershot UPDATE

9th January, 2026 (8 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) appears to have closed access to all underground structures within the Aldershot exchange (ACM) area in Hampshire (England), which occurred yesterday after they identified “suspected toxic gases” within the local underground network.

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Survey Warns a Third of UK Adults Use VPNs to Bypass Internet Porn Age Checks

7th January, 2026 (26 Comments)

A new survey of 1,469 adults, which was conducted by the child protection focused Lucy Faithfull Foundation, has “warned” that 45% of adults who don’t want to verify their identities to access porn – a requirement of the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) – have turned to using sites without age checks. In addition, 29% have used Virtual Private Networks to bypass age checks on sites that have them.

Cloudflare are Making Changes to Avoid Breaking the Internet Again in 2026

22nd December, 2025 (11 Comments)

The American Content Delivery Network (CDN) and IT service company Cloudflare has committed to make several key changes in order to avoid breaking a significant chunk of the internet again, much as they did on two occasions between November (here) and, to a lesser extent, during early December 2025.

Ofcom Probe BT and Three UK Over Outages of Mobile Calling and 999 UPDATE2

15th December, 2025 (8 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has this morning launched fresh investigations into mobile network operators EE (BT) and Three UK following network outages in the summer that resulted in UK-wide disruption to mobile call services, including to emergency services (e.g. 999 for police, fire, ambulance etc.).

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Two Charged with Theft of Batteries from UK Broadband Street Cabinets

12th December, 2025 (14 Comments)

Last year we reported that the Kent Police had arrested four people in connection with the theft of batteries from “telecoms boxes” (i.e. street cabinets used by broadband providers), cables and other equipment (here), which caused some areas to lose internet connectivity. Two people have now been charged with 40 offences – Levi Backett (38) and a 15-year-old boy.