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Articles for Category Tag - Security

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Ofcom Orders UK Phones Providers to Add Tougher Scam Call Blocking

29th July, 2024 (10 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today given UK phone providers (fixed line and mobile) six months to implement changes that aim to help tackle scammers who call from abroad and imitate UK landline numbers (i.e. spoofed calls), which requires stricter measures against “Presentation Numbers” that are used to identify who is making a call.

Ofcom Propose New Ban to Tackle Abuse of UK Mobile Networks

22nd July, 2024 (8 Comments)

Market regulator Ofcom has proposed to ban UK telecoms operators from leasing Global Titles – numbers like +44 (for the United Kingdom) that support mobile services – to third parties. This is because such leasing can be misused to try and intercept messages and calls, disrupt the operation of networks and track the location of users of other networks.

Ofcom UK Hit BT with £17.5m Fine for 999 Call Handling Fault UPDATE

22nd July, 2024 (17 Comments)

The national regulator, Ofcom, has this morning hit BT with a fine of £17.5m for being “ill-prepared to respond to a catastrophic failure of its emergency call handling service last summer” (here), which readers may recall occurred after a technical fault (“complex software issue”) resulted in 14,000 emergency calls being disrupted. The disruption lasted for 10.5 hours.

Big Ben, London Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament - 123rf

King’s Speech Reveals Plans for New UK Cyber Security and Planning Reform Laws

17th July, 2024 (15 Comments)

The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills that could potentially support the expansion of gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks, as well as toughen cyber security and Digital Verification Services.

Linksys Velop Broadband Routers Can Leak Passwords in Cleartext UPDATE

17th July, 2024 (8 Comments)

Owners of the Linksys Velop Pro 6E and Pro 7 mesh routers, which are also used by some broadband connected consumers in the UK, are being advised to change the router’s passwords and Wi-Fi network names through an external web browser. The requirement comes after it was alleged that the models could transmit passwords in cleartext during the initial setup.

LetterOne Appeal Forced UK Sale of Broadband Network Upp to Nexfibre

10th July, 2024 (3 Comments)

LetterOne, the investment firm behind alternative network provider Upp’s £1bn project to deploy a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network across 1 million premises in the East of England (here), has asked the High Court of Justice in London to rule it was unlawfully ordered to sell the network by the UK Government.

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Network Operators and UK ISPs Warned of BlastRADIUS Vulnerability

9th July, 2024 (6 Comments)

A new critical security vulnerability has been discovered in the popular RADIUS network authentication protocol, which is used by networks across the world to help users connect with their services (i.e. everything from broadband ISPs to VPNs, mobile operators and more) and thus could leave them exposed to Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) style attacks.

EE UK Scam Guard on Smartphone email PR on 09072024

EE UK Launch New Scam Guard Add-on to Protect Mobile Customers

9th July, 2024 (6 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile network operator EE (BT) has today launched a new technology service for Pay Monthly mobile customers called ‘Scam Guard’, which is a network-level security defence that harness AI to better protect users from “nuisance calls, dark web hackers and phishing scams“. But it’s not free.

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Openreach Toughen Whereabouts Stance for Altnet UK Broadband Engineers UPDATE

29th June, 2024 (10 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has begun the process of toughening up their stance on compliance with their “whereabouts” rules. This could see them taking further contractual action against alternative UK broadband networks (altnets) that struggle to reach the necessary 90% performance threshold, which might eventually include restrictions on network access.

Northumberland Council Warn of Rise in UK Broadband Scammers

28th June, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Northumberland County Council (NCC) in England has put out a general warning to residents after observing a rise in “broadband-related cyber fraud“, which occurs when scammers attempt to impersonate your ISP in order to steal financial data and money. Some 68% of the reported victims have collectively lost £12.57k to this scam alone.

Vodafone UK Boost Internet Security of Pro II Broadband Packages

24th June, 2024 (5 Comments)

Mobile operator and broadband ISP Vodafone UK has this morning launched a new internet security service for their Pro II home broadband packages “at no extra cost“, called ‘Secure Net Home’, which is a combination of digital security and parental controls (filtering) that can be used on more than 150 connected devices in the home.

Lyca Mobile UK Auditor PKF Littlejohn Refuses to Sign Off Accounts

17th June, 2024 (12 Comments)

News reports have indicated that the auditor – PKF Littlejohn – for mobile network operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual operator (MVNO) on EE’s platform in the UK, were unable to sign off the company’s most recent accounts (to December 2022) due to various concerns, such as the recoverability of a due balance of nearly £150m.

Police Arrest Two Men Over Illegal UK Phone Mast and Smishing

12th June, 2024 (7 Comments)

In somewhat of a first for the United Kingdom, Police in the City of London area last week reported that they had arrested two men in connection with the investigation of an “illegitimate telephone mast” and antenna, which is believed to have been setup for the purpose of acting as an “SMS blaster”.

O2 UK Begins Rolling Out New, Free Caller Identification Feature

10th June, 2024 (11 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today officially confirmed that they’ve started rolling out Hiya’s new Brand ID technology to customers for free, which is a caller identification solution that can reduce the number of calls customers receive from unknown numbers (e.g. scammers) by providing details of the organisation making the call.

ISP Sky Business Warns UK SMEs Underestimate Cost of Cyber Attacks

4th June, 2024 (1 Comment)

A new Censuswide survey of 353 UK decision makers at smaller (SME) businesses, which was conducted by broadband ISP Sky Business (Sky Broadband) during April 2024, has revealed that their SecurityEdge filters blocked over 73 million malware, phishing and bot attacks in the past year. But SMEs that have yet to experience a cyberattack still underestimate the potential financial impact.

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Virgin Media UK Reveals Impact of its Broadband Security Filters

30th May, 2024 (7 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media has today revealed that their online security services – ‘Essential Security‘ (included for free on their packages) and ‘Advanced Security’ (paid), have – between June 2022 to May 2023 – blocked 136 million unsafe or harmful websites, 800k virus, malware and spyware risks and secured 4.9 million banking and shopping transactions.

New SSID Confusion Attack Exploits General WiFi Vulnerability

14th May, 2024 (11 Comments)

Network security researchers have published details of a new vulnerability that arises from a “design flaw” in the IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard (CVE-2023-52424), which is said to impact “all operating systems and WiFi clients” and allows an attacker to trick Wi-Fi clients into connecting to an untrusted network.