Resembling cigarette packet warnings, the ads highlight dangers and urge people to email MPs
Mumsnet has launched a campaign to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s featuring health warnings in the style of those on cigarette packets.
The deliberately provocative national advertising campaign calls for all social media to be banned for children under the age of 16. The images on billboards and social media make a number of stark statements related to health.
Continue reading...Critics voice concern as government says its Sanchar Saathi app combats cybersecurity threats for 1.2bn telecom users
India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates.
In tackling a recent surge of cybercrime and hacking, India is joining authorities worldwide, most recently in Russia, to frame rules blocking the use of stolen phones for fraud or promoting state-backed government service apps.
Continue reading...Company apologises and says network ‘recovering’ after many customers say there were unable to access services
Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers in the UK have reported they could not access services including the internet and making mobile phone calls.
Consumers started reporting problems on the website of the outage monitor Downdetector from about 3pm on Monday.
Continue reading...Taliban authorities cut fibre-optic network in nationwide shutdown of communications to prevent ‘vice’
Afghans are living under a near-complete communications blackout after Taliban authorities cut internet and mobile phone services for a second day as part of an unprecedented country-wide crackdown.
The former insurgents, who retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, began gradual restrictions on internet access earlier this month. The measures also affect telephone lines, as they are often routed over the internet.
Continue reading...Captain and first and second officers of Eagle S, understood to be part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’, charged over incident
Finnish authorities have filed charges against members of the crew of an oil tanker suspected of damaging five undersea cables by dragging its anchor between Finland and Estonia.
Finland’s deputy prosecutor general’s office said on Monday it had filed charges of aggravated sabotage and aggravated interference with telecommunications against the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S. The Cook Islands-registered tanker is understood to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” – comprising vessels that sail under foreign flags to evade sanctions.
Continue reading...Spate of incidents in Baltic Sea and around Taiwan are harbinger for further disruptive activity, cybersecurity firm says
The risk of Russia- and China-backed attacks on undersea cables carrying international internet traffic is likely to rise amid a spate of incidents in the Baltic Sea and around Taiwan, according to a report.
Submarine cables account for 99% of the world’s intercontinental data traffic and have been affected by incidents with suspected state support over the past 18 months.
Continue reading...CSRI finds China and Russia may be coordinating ‘grey zone’ tactics against vulnerable western infrastructure
China and Russia are stepping up sabotage operations targeting undersea cables and the UK is unprepared to meet the mounting threat, according to new analysis.
A report by the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) analysed 12 incidents in which national authorities had investigated alleged undersea cable sabotage between January 2021 and April 2025. Of the 10 cases in which a suspect vessel was identified, eight were directly linked to China or Russia through flag-state registration or company ownership.
Continue reading...Announcement wipes about $70bn off Apple shares amid pressure on company to build smartphones in US
Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on iPhones if they are not made in the United States, as he stepped up the pressure on Apple to build its signature product in the country.
The president wiped approximately $70bn (£52bn) off the company’s shares with a post on the Truth Social platform that said iPhones sold inside the US must be made within the country’s borders.
Continue reading...BT had planned to remove the familiar red kiosk in rural Norfolk until 89-year-old Derek Harris intervened
An 89-year-old man has won his battle to save the last remaining phone box in a village in East Anglia.
Derek Harris learned in January that BT was planning to remove the K6-style box in Sharrington, Norfolk, where he has lived for 50 years.
Harris and his fellow campaigners argued it was “an iconic heritage asset” and a vital asset to the community, due to the poor mobile signal in the rural area and North Norfolk having the highest proportion of older residents in England and Wales.
On Monday, BT informed Harris it had decided not to withdraw the payphone.
In a letter, the company said: “Given the poor mobile service in the area and the significant number of calls made from this payphone, it is clear that it serves an important function for the community. Therefore, we are withdrawing it from the removal programme.
“We understand the importance of maintaining reliable communication options, especially in areas where mobile service is lacking. The payphone has proven to be a vital resource for residents, ensuring that they have access to emergency services and can stay connected.
“Our decision reflects our commitment to supporting the community’s needs and ensuring that essential services remain accessible.”
Harris was born in 1935, the same year that the K6 style of red phone box was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. It went into production in 1936, becoming a familiar sight across the UK in just a few years.
Linda Jennings, from Brinton and Sharrington parish council, said: “It’s fantastic, the ‘normal man’ has won over the big company. We are all very pleased. It’s really good that BT has backed down.
“The mobile phone signal is really poor, it’s a lifeline for people. If you can’t get a signal there, you need these phone boxes. We have a parish council meeting on Thursday, Derek will get a big pat on the back.”
Last month, Harris told the Guardian of the need for the phone box to remain.
“We live next to perhaps the most beautiful part of Norfolk, the tranquil Glaven Valley with a pure chalk stream running through it,” he said. “It attracts ramblers, walkers, the lot, and everyone knows that there’s a working kiosk.”
In the event of an emergency and the mobile network being down, he added, “Wouldn’t it be awful if someone said: ‘If only they had kept that working kiosk’?
America’s biggest crypto companies are riding high. Plus, can the left reclaim techno-optimism?
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. In this week’s edition, the crypto industry’s political investments pay off in spades, the left attempts to reclaim an optimistic view of our shiny technological future, and your memories of Skype.
SpaceX’s Starship explodes in second failure for Elon Musk’s Mars program
Musk tells Republicans he isn’t to blame for mass firings of federal workers
Musk survives as fellow of Royal Society despite anger among scientists
White House to overhaul $42.5bn Biden-era internet plan – probably to Musk’s advantage
Continue reading...Australian Communications and Media Authority says telco did not check welfare of 369 people who tried to make a call while lines were down
Optus has paid a $12m fine over its mobile network outage last year that resulted in more than 2,000 people being unable to make triple zero calls.
One year ago on Friday, a routine software upgrade to Optus’s mobile network brought down the service for 14 hours across the country for the company’s 10 million customers.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...UK consumer group Which? finds some everyday items including watches and speakers are ‘stuffed with trackers’
Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers “stuffed with trackers” are among examples of smart devices engaged in “excessive” surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?
The organisation tested three air fryers, increasingly a staple of British kitchens, each of which requested permission to record audio on the user’s phone through a connected app.
Continue reading...Coverage with UK-European provider will be in place by end of month, says island’s main telecoms company
Taiwan is expected to have access to low earth orbit satellite internet service by the end of the month, a step the government says is crucial in case a Chinese attack cripples the island’s communications.
The forthcoming service is via a contract between Taiwan’s main telecoms company, Chunghwa, and a UK-European company, Eutelsat OneWeb, signed last year, and marks a new milestone in Taiwan’s efforts to address technological vulnerabilities, particularly its internet access, after attempts to get access to Elon Musk’s Starlink service collapsed.
Continue reading...The KX100 design caused controversy when it replaced the classic red phone box – but now a handful may be given listed status
Campaigners are trying to secure listed status for the “boringly ugly” telephone boxes that BT controversially used to replace thousands of red phone boxes in the 1980s.
The Twentieth Century Society, which champions outstanding examples of modern design, has applied for listed status for one KX100 box each in England, Scotland and Wales before they are removed next year.
In England, the 100,000th box to be installed in the country, located at Dunsop Bridge in Lancashire, which sits at the geographic centre of Great Britain and its 401 associated islands.
In Scotland, a contender for the country’s most remote and scenic payphone near Maaruig, on the Isle of Harris. It is believed to be the only example still bearing the full original yellow British Telecom livery.
In Wales, an experimental model at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, which is uniquely powered by a solar panel atop the kiosk and an adjacent 18ft-high wind turbine.
Continue reading...Revenue at Chinese telecom rose 10% as net profit more than doubles
Chinese telecoms firm Huawei grew faster in 2023 than it has for four years, as it shrugged off the impact of US sanctions.
Revenues rose by nearly 10% to 704.2bn yuan (£77bn) as the Shenzhen-based company enjoyed a rebound within its consumer segment, which includes smartphone handsets.
Continue reading...More than 70,000 affected as users of AT&T report disruptions including to emergency service calls
A cellular phone outage hit cities across the US early on Thursday. Thousands of AT&T customers reported service disruptions that rendered them unable to send texts, access the internet or make calls, even to emergency services via 911.
More than 50,000 incidents were reported at about 7am ET, according to data from the outage tracking website Downdetector.com. Outage reports spiked above 70,000 around 9am ET.
Continue reading...UN-recognised government and telecoms firms speak of threat to digital infrastructure, with some submarine cables lying just 100 metres below the surface
Telecom firms linked to the UN-recognised Yemen government said on Sunday they fear Houthi rebels are planning to sabotage a network of submarine cables in the Red Sea critical to the functioning of the western internet, and to the transmission of financial data.
The warning came after a Houthi-linked Telegram channel published a map of the cables running along the bed of the Red Sea. The image was accompanied by a message: “There are maps of international cables connecting all regions of the world through the sea. It seems that Yemen is in a strategic location, as internet lines that connect entire continents – not only countries – pass near it.”
Continue reading...Hospitals, homes, businesses and transport services hit by Australia-wide internet, mobile and landline network blackout; CEO says there is a ‘path to restoration’
Here’s what we know about the Optus outage so far:
Millions of Australian customers and businesses have been hit by a widespread outage on the Optus network. Affected services include mobile and fixed-line networks, along with internet connections.
According to Downdetector, reports of an outage began at 4am AEDT. A spike of reports flooded through at 5.45am, when 8,180 reports of an outage were received.
Optus provided a statement online about 6.45am, saying it was “aware of an issue impacting Optus mobile and nbn services” and was working to restore services “as quickly as possible”.
At 10.30am AEDT the telco’s chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, told ABC Radio Sydney the company had tested a number of “hypotheses” about what might have caused the problem but none fixed the issue.
The federal communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said a protocol was in place to allow Optus customers to “camp” on other mobile networks when needing to call 000. There was a marked increase in camping calls on Wednesday.
However, Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, urged people not to use Optus-linked phones to call triple zero. She said some Optus users had reported they are unable to get through.
At 12.55pm, Optus wrote on X that some services across fixed and mobile were gradually being restored. “This may take a few hours for all services to recover, and different services may restore at different sites over that time.”
Optus also reiterated its “apology to customers for the nationwide service outage”, and said it was aware of some mobile phones having issues connecting to 000. “If Optus customers need to call emergency services, we suggest finding a family member or neighbour with an alternative device.”
Shortly after 1pm Rosmarin announced that there was now a “path to restoration” and that some users had had services restored.
The outage caused major service disruptions and delays across the Melbourne train network. It was also affecting phone lines at hospitals across the country.
Rowland and the Coalition’s communications spokesperson, David Coleman, have urged Optus to keep its customers updated.
The Communication Workers Union has labelled today’s Optus outage as an “absolute disgrace” that has left vulnerable people “relying on landlines without emergency help”.
The telecommunications industry ombudsman has released a statement advising Optus customers: “We can help you with refunds for the time you have been unable to use your service, compensation claims and disputes about your contract.”
Rowland earlier said information about the cause of the outage was limited but suggested a “deep network problem”. She said there was no information suggesting a cyber-attack as of Wednesday morning.
Rowland advised small businesses to keep receipts as an “evidentiary base” for recourse and redress.
The Greens will move for an urgent inquiry into the outage in the Senate later today.
The South Australian premier said his government was already talking to Telstra about switching some of its “critical services” away from Optus. Peter Malinauskus also said the state government was “disappointed with Optus”.
Continue reading...Tie-up is a ‘terrible deal for Britain’ that also poses risks for national security, Unite claims
Mobile phone bills could rise by as much as £300 a year as a result of the merger of the UK operations of Vodafone and the owner of Three, a trade union has said.
Unite has been a vocal critic of the proposed deal, which would create the UK’s largest mobile operator, and said that it is a “terrible” deal that also poses risks for national security.
Continue reading...Severed fibre-optic cables hamper search for survivors in eastern Libya where thousands died after dams collapsed
A daylong communication outage in the flood-stricken city of Derna in eastern Libya has further complicated the work of teams searching for bodies under the rubble and at sea.
The country’s chief prosecutor, meanwhile, vowed to take “serious measures” to deliver justice for the victims of the floods, which killed thousands of people and devastated the coastal city more than a week ago.
Continue reading...