Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Security (828 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Security

Openreach damaged copper and fibre cables

Vandals Attack Openreach’s Broadband Network in Bedminster and Chippenham

26th August, 2026 (9 Comments)

National network operator Openreach has revealed that their UK broadband and phone network suffered “malicious damage” across two separate incidents in Bedminster (District of Bristol) and Chippenham (Wiltshire) on Monday. This disrupted connectivity to local homes and businesses in the area.

Tesco Mobile Launch Safe Start Plans to Help UK Parents Setup Phones for Kids

20th August, 2026 (1 Comment)

Mobile provider Tesco Mobile, which is one of the UK’s largest virtual (mvno) mobile network operators (uses O2) and home to a customer base of c.6 million, has launched a new Safe Start plan to help parents feel more confident their child’s phone is safe, set up correctly and ready for day one.

Government Issues UK Mobile Emergency Alert Over Wildfire Risk

14th August, 2026 (49 Comments)

The UK government may have surprised a few people just after 7pm tonight after using the Emergency Alerts service via mobile network operators to send out a national warning about the “very high risk of wildfires nationally“, which advises people across the country to avoid undertaking any activity that could start a fire.

Giant Broadband Launch Free UK Network-Level Internet Security Service

7th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Liverpool-based UK ISP Giant has introduced a new network-level internet content filtering and security service called ‘Guardian‘ for their customers, which is available for free on all of their broadband packages and is designed to “work across every connected device — no downloads or per-device setup required“.

Email Inbox Electronic Communication 123rf

Ofcom UK Blocked 481,521 Malicious Emails Over the Past 3 Years

7th August, 2026 (1 Comment)

A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that the UK telecoms, internet content and media regulator, Ofcom, blocked a total of 481,521 “malicious emails” between June 2023 and February 2026 (472,936 phishing and 8,585 malware emails). But this figure excludes SPAM (junk marketing) emails, which are likely to be much higher.

Copper Cable Thieves Knock Out Broadband Near St Neots for a Third Time

7th August, 2026 (4 Comments)

A criminal gang has, for a third time since the start of last year (see here and here), this week disrupted Openreach’s broadband services around part of the Cambridgeshire (England) town of St Neots by stealing 500 metres worth of the UK network operator’s local copper telecoms cables.

NordVPN Launch Free SCAM Checker AI Tool Called NordBot on Messaging Platforms

29th July, 2026 (2 Comments)

The NordVPN service, which is a popular Virtual Private Network (VPN) provider, has today launched NordBot, which is described as being a free “experimental” AI tool that lets people submit suspicious messages, links or images through WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram or X for a quick risk assessment to see if they’re scams or not.

Error message concept. Alert, attention notification. Important reminder

Ofcom Rejected More Effective Method of Blocking UK Messaging Scams

17th July, 2026 (3 Comments)

Earlier this week Ofcom introduced new measures to help UK mobile operators “block, limit and disrupt scammers” from sending messaging scams (here). The changes, while positive, overlooked the fact that the regulator ended up rejecting an already adopted (in other countries) and UK developed fix that would have been more effective, partly due to BT and others complaining that it would be too “onerous“.

Internet Danger Websites with Scam Ads and Malware

Cifas Joins Global Signal Exchange to Help UK Telecoms Providers Tackle Scams

16th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK’s fraud prevention service, Cifas, which is home to over 775 members including major telecoms providers such as Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), BT, Sky Broadband and more, has joined the Global Signal Exchange (GSE) to “strengthen the global fight against” online scams by collaborating to identify, disrupt, and prevent online scams at scale across borders and sectors.

Virgin Media O2 Publish First Quarterly Scam Index to Track UK Scam Calls and Texts

15th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

Broadband and mobile operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) have today decided to complement Ofcom’s new anti-scam rules for telecoms providers (here) by publishing their first quarterly Scam Index, which among other things reveals that more than 18.5 million adults in the UK have been targeted by scammers in just three months.

Ofcom Introduce New UK Rules to Tackle Mobile Messaging Scams UPDATE

15th July, 2026 (7 Comments)

The UK internet content, telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has this morning published a “comprehensive package of practical measures” to help UK mobile network operators “block, limit and disrupt scammers” from sending messaging scams. In addition, they’ve strengthened rules to help protect people from international calls that imitate – or “spoof” – UK mobile numbers.

Blocked and censored internet content on Smartphone by 123RF ID185419411

Gov Sets Out More Detail of UK Social Media Curfews and Restrictions for Under 18s

14th July, 2026 (6 Comments)

The Government has tonight set out more details of how they intend to implement their recently announced internet Social Media ban for children under 16 (original news), which among other things includes new details on overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under 18s.

Vodafone-broadband-user-with-daughter-on-shoulders

Vodafone UK Deploy Number Verify v2 to Protect Against Online Fraud

13th July, 2026 (3 Comments)

Six years ago the UK’s major mobile operators began to deploy a service called ‘Number Verify’ (here), which made it both easier and more secure to authenticate a user’s identity for online transactions. Vodafone has now announced that the UK, Germany and the Netherlands will be the first countries to get v2.0 of the phone number authentication API.

VodafoneThree Sign Outside UK Office Building in June 2025

VodafoneThree Blocks over 2 Million UK Banking Sector Fraud Attempts

6th July, 2026 (1 Comment)

Mobile and broadband operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has today announced that a new collaboration with the banking sector has helped to block more than 2 million fraud attempts since August 2025. The trial is said to have resulted in a 25% increase in banking scam messages being blocked on the mobile giant’s UK network.

Access denied UK internet block and censorship tag by 123rf ID8774126

ISPs Say Rights Holders Must be Held Accountable for Blocking Innocent Websites

1st July, 2026 (4 Comments)

The EuroISPA (European ISP Association), which represents over 3,300 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the EU and EFTA countries (including the United Kingdom), has called for copyright holders to be “held accountable” when their measures to stop access to online piracy (copyright infringement) creates “collateral damage [due to] overbroad blocking actions“.

O2 UK Warns Mobile Customers Over New Inactive SIM Scam

30th June, 2026 (2 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has warned customers that fraudsters are using a “new” phishing tactic to steal their private personal and security details (i.e. granting them access to their MyO2 accounts), which involves criminals posing as the telecoms company while claiming that the customers’ SIM cards are about to expire.

Sky-Broadband-Max-Hub-with-Coloured-Lines

Sky Broadband Users Accidentally Blocked from UK NHS Website and App

26th June, 2026 (13 Comments)

Some customers of Sky Broadband reported that they were unable to access the main NHS website and app earlier in the week, seemingly after the internet provider accidentally managed to block it. But Sky has since suggested that the fault might have been with the NHS. The issue prevented people being able to access their medical data and manage appointments etc.