Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Security (774 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Security

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

Budget Broadband ISP TalkTalk Probes Possible UK Data Breach

25th January, 2025 (9 Comments)

Customers of debt-troubled UK internet provider TalkTalk have been given an uncomfortable reminder of the 2015 cyberattack (here), which came after the ISP admitted that it was “investigating” reports on a cybercrime forum that alleged the provider had suffered a new data breach.

Police Arrest After Protestors Cut Vital Fibre Optic Cables in UK Cities

25th January, 2025 (34 Comments)

The City of London Police (CoLP) have arrested a 29-year-old man after a climate protest group claimed to have “[disrupted] the wifi systems of hundreds of insurance companies across the UK“, which they achieved by cutting key fibre optic cables in London (similar events are also said to have occurred in Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield).

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O2 UK Reveals First Insights from AI Granny Created to Waste Scammers Time

23rd January, 2025 (19 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) launched a “human-like” AI (Artificial Intelligence) ‘Granny’ called Daisy in November last year (here), which was designed to answer calls in real-time from fraudsters and keep them busy (away from customers) for as long as possible. Since then, the bot has chatted with over 1,000 scam callers, and it’s learnt a few things.

ICO Confirms it’s Still Investigating Lyca Mobile UK’s 2023 Data Breach

18th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

In a small update, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed to ISPreview that their investigation into the September 2023 cyberattack and data breach of mobile network operator Lyca Mobile (here) is still “ongoing“. But the ICO declined to answer why it was taking so long to reach a conclusion.

Millions of VPN Servers and Routers Exposed to New Tunnelling Protocol Vulnerabilities

15th January, 2025 (14 Comments)

Security and VPN researchers Simon Migliano and Mathy Vanhoef have published a new report today that warns “over 4 million internet hosts“, including VPN servers and private home broadband routers, were found to be vulnerable to being hijacked to perform anonymous attacks and provide access to their private networks – thanks to “new vulnerabilities in multiple tunneling protocols“.

Internet and UK Telecoms Security Picture by 123rf

UK Internet Domain Registry Nominet Suffers Cyber Attack

9th January, 2025 (2 Comments)

The UK internet domain registry, Nominet, has confirmed to ISPreview that their network has suffered an “unauthorised intrusion” after hackers exploited a “zero-day vulnerability” in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) software they use, which is supplied by Ivanti and enables their people to access systems remotely.

Scam Alert UK Finger on Computer Keyboard Warning

Scam Callers Target Broadband ISP BT’s UK Digital Voice Switchover

8th January, 2025 (15 Comments)

Consumer magazine Which? has warned customers of UK broadband ISP BT (inc. EE) to be on alert for phone scammers who are now actively impersonating BT’s support agents in order to exploit the ongoing migration onto digital landlines (Digital Voice). The scammers do this by trying to con customers into sharing their financial (payment) details.

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ISP Virgin Media UK Warns Parental Controls on New Devices Still Confuse

18th December, 2024 (9 Comments)

A new survey of 1,020 people in the UK, which was conduct by Strand Partners on behalf of broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) and Internet Matters, has found that 44% of parents don’t know how to add safety controls or tools to the tech (devices) they’re planning to gift this Christmas. This is despite 82% being worried about their children having unrestricted access to the internet.

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Lyca Mobile Warns up to 90 Percent of UK Staff Could Lose their Jobs

16th December, 2024 (18 Comments)

Troubled mobile operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual operator (mvno) on EE’s network, has reportedly told its UK workforce that the company is facing some “pretty serious challenges” and as a result of that almost 90% of their workers (up to 316 jobs) could be made redundant.

Censorship and forbidden speech warning sign uk internet

Ofcom Publish New Online UK Internet Safety Codes of Practice

16th December, 2024 (20 Comments)

Ofcom has today published the “first edition” of its new online UK safety codes of practice for “tech firms” (e.g. social media) and smaller websites under the government’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Providers now have 3 months to ensure they’re able to tackle “illegal harms” (content), such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and assisting or encouraging suicide.

Hiya – UK Residents Receive 4 SPAM Calls Per Person Each Month

6th December, 2024 (10 Comments)

The latest Q3 2024 Global Call Threat Report from Hiya, which also works with broadband ISPs and mobile operators (BT, EE, O2, Virgin Media etc.) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has revealed that residents of the UK receive 4 spam calls per person each month (up from 3 spam calls last quarter) – albeit one of the lowest rates in Europe.

Vodafone and Three UK Mega Mobile Merger Gets Final Approval UPDATE

5th December, 2024 (88 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today finally granted approval for mobile operators Vodafone and Three UK to proceed with their merger deal (here), which will result in an expansion of their 5G Standalone (SA) network (broadband) coverage. But the merged company will have to comply with new legal obligations and consumer pricing controls.

Ransomware Group Claims to Have Breached One of BT’s UK Systems

5th December, 2024 (9 Comments)

Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has confirmed that a ransomware gang made an “attempt” to compromise their BT Conferencing business platform. The group, which calls itself Black Basta, claims to have stolen 500GB (GigaBytes) of sensitive and financial data, although the UK operator has yet to confirm this.

BT and EE Extend Gov’s 4G Emergency Services Network for 7 Years

2nd December, 2024 (8 Comments)

The UK Government has signed a new £1.29bn deal with BT (EE) to extend their operation of the 4G based Emergency Services Network (ESN) for another 7-years. But after years of delays and disputes, only some of which is related to EE’s side of things, the Home Office still doesn’t expect the ESN to be fully operational until 2029.

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International Body Launched to Help Protect Submarine Telecoms Cables

29th November, 2024 (0 Comments)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Agency for Digital Technologies, and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) have today formed a new ‘International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience‘, which comes hot on the heels of an ongoing dispute after two fibre optic cables were cut in the Baltic Sea last week.

O2 UK Deploying Free AI-Powered Scam Call Detector Service

28th November, 2024 (4 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today expanded upon their existing partnership with Hiya by integrating the company’s AI-powered scam detection service to help combat fraud and nuisance calls, which sees them claiming to be the “first and only UK mobile operator to provide this service to customers at no extra cost“.

Sky Threatens Legal Challenge to Vodafone and Three UK Merger

26th November, 2024 (28 Comments)

Sky (Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband etc.) has today warned the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that they could launch a legal challenge (appeal) if the proposed merger between mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK is allowed to proceed, unless significant changes are made to the proposed competition remedies.