Tag: Virgin

UK plagued by dodgy routers

Posted on May 10, 2021 by - News

Millions in the UK could be using insecure routers according to an investigation carried out by Which?

A survey of more than 6,000 adults conducted in December 2020 found that millions of households could be using devices which are more than five years old and are no longer being supported with firmware updates.

Among the security flaws discovered were weak default passwords which are easy to guess by hackers, as well as local network vulnerabilities which would allow hackers to direct users to malicious websites.

Which? claims it sent some of the most used older devices to security specialists Red Maple Technologies, who discovered problems with more than half of them which included ISPs such as Virgin, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Vodafone.

Virgin Galactic wants to bring internet to have-nots

Posted on January 16, 2015 by - News

 article-2546173-1AF57AF200000578-172_634x417Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson announced plans to launch as many as 2,400 micro satellites in an effort to set up a constellation capable of bringing broadband communications to millions of people who do not have it.

Beardie said he plans to launch a low-earth-orbit satellite constellation of 648 satellites to get the project rolling. The internet will be available through a company called OneWeb.

OneWeb is backed by Qualcomm for this planned world-wide Internet service. OneWeb said it plans to work with local partners to provide access. OneWeb terminals act as small cells with the ability to provide access to the surrounding area via a WiFi, LTE, 3G or 2G connection using an operator partner’s licensed spectrum, or only LTE or WiFi on unlicensed spectrum.

Writing in his bog, Beardie said that Virgin is working to build a two-stage rocket, known as LauncherOne that would air-launch launch from the company’s existing WhiteKnightTwo aircraft at about 45,000 to 50,000ft.

WhiteKnightTwo was part of the Virgin Galactic’s space tourism venture which had a major setback in October when the spaceship it launched crashed killing one pilot and injuring the other. However, this one uses a different launcher technology.

LauncherOne will be built using advanced composite structures, and powered by a new family of LOX/RP-1 liquid rocket engines. Each LauncherOne mission will be capable of delivering as much as 225 kilograms (500 pounds) to a low inclination Low Earth Orbit or 120 kilograms (265 pounds) to a high-altitude Sun-Synchronous Orbit, for a price of less than $10M, Beardie wrote.

He said that this was a very efficient way of getting satellites into space. Virgin can take off every three or four hours.

The first batch of satellites will cost around $2 billion which will be very competitive on price, as far as the end-user is concerned.

“We believe that the break-even of this is not enormous. We feel it makes sense economically as well.”

 

 

A British telco hacked my browser

Posted on December 24, 2014 by - News

wargames-hackerTop British telcos are hijacking their customers’ browsers to make sure that David Cameron’s anti-porn filter rules are enforced.

BT, Sky, and Virgin Media are struggling to get customers to say yes or no to the controversial adult content blocks, because unlike David Cameron, the majority of customers are happy with being able to see what they like.

When a user tries to access any website. BT, Sky,TalkTalk and Virgin Media are required to ask all their customers if they want web filters turned on or off and never see anything that would offend Cameron and his blue rinse friends ever again.

According to Wired the measures being taken by ISPs have been described as “completely unnecessary” and “heavy handed” by Internet rights groups.

The hijacking works by intercepting requests for unencrypted websites and rerouting a user to a different page. ISPs are using the technique to communicate with all undecided customers.

If you click on an interesting Channeleye story you could be redirected to a page asking about web filtering.  The only way you would be safe is if you only look at encrypted websites.

BT is blocking people’s browsers until they make a decision, making it impossible for customers to visit any websites once the in-browser notification has appeared.

A spokesperson for the UK’s biggest ISP said: “If customers do not make a decision, they are unable to continue browsing. The message will remain until the customer makes a decision.”

BT said that it is not forcing people to activate BT Parental Controls and if a user selects “No” they will be taken to a confirmation page and be able to continue browsing without the message reappearing.

The digital rights organization Open Rights Group (ORG) said that ISPs risked encouraging customers to trust hijacked sessions by displaying messages in this way.

“How can a customer tell the difference between an ISP hijack and a phishing site made to look the same? There are better ways for ISPs to contact their customers—particularly given that they have our phone numbers, email and actual addresses,” an ORG spokesperson said.

Sky is also hijacking browser sessions to ask customers if they want to turn on its Sky Broadband Shield web filter. Unlike BT, Sky said it would not disconnect or block customers if they refused to make a decision.

Virgin said it had no plans to disconnect or block customers who did not make a decision, adding that its in-browser message about its Web Filters system could be ignored. The ISP did not say how it planned to get any remaining undecided customers to make a decision if they continued to ignore prompts.

However, all this is playing directly into the Government’s hands by setting a precident. ISPs for years have said that they are not responsible for what their customers see online. By forcing customers to say “yes” or “no” for the web filters they are placing themselves in a role which the government can use.

The next thing could be looking at emails at the request of whatever daft arse idea that the government has about terrorism, or childcare

Virgin too fast and loose for ASA

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

rbransonAdvertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a TV, website and several press adverts for Virgin Media’s cable broadband service saying that they were misleading punters.

Rivals BT and Sky Broadband (BSkyB), moaned that the Virgin promotions “misled” consumers by claiming the service offered Internet download speeds that were “5x faster than Sky and BT’s regular broadband”.

Virgin Media’s TV promotion claimed that customers would be able to “download five times faster than BT’s regular broadband. It invited viewers to visit virginmedia.com/ourspeeds “for verification“.

BT said that the webpage in question did not provide sufficient information for viewers to verify the comparison that had been made.

Both BT and Sky Broadband complained against several almost identical claims made in other ads. Both ISPs described the “5x faster than Sky and BT’s regular broadband” claim as “misleading”.

They said that not all Virgin Media customers would always be able to “download 5x faster” than Sky’s and BT’s broadband customers.

Virgin Media and its advertising partner, Clearcast, felt that the webpage listed above did provide “all of the necessary information to allow viewers to verify the comparisons” and that the “5x faster” statement would understood by viewers not to be “absolute”.

The ASA disagreed and concluded the information provided was not sufficient to ensure the details of the comparison could be verified.

In its ruling it said that while consumers were likely to be aware that the speed of broadband services would vary according to factors such as the time of day, claims that consumers would be able to “download 5x faster than Sky and BT’s regular broadband” were not in conditional language.

It was considered they were likely to be understood to mean that Virgin’s superfast service was always five times faster than Sky’s and BT’s regular services, even when normal variations such as the time of day were taken into account, the ASA said.

As a result, Virgin Media has unfortunately seen a bunch of its adverts banned in their current form and the provider has once more been told to “ensure they provided sufficient information about comparisons to allow them to be verified” and warned to stop making absolute claims if they could not be proved.

New CEO of Virgin named

Posted on May 8, 2013 by - Moving People, News

Richard BransonTom Mockridge has been named as the new chief executive of Virgin.

The ex head of the UK arm of News International will join the rival after the $15.75 billion acquisition by US cable company Liberty Global completes.

Mockridge was previously chief executive of European Television operations, chief executive of Sky Italia and and most recently chief executive of News International.

He will succeed Neil Berkett, who will continue in his role as CEO of Virgin Media until closing of the transaction, having previously announced his intention to retire from Virgin Media upon closing the deal.

Mike Fries, President and CEO of Liberty Global, said the new recruit would bring experience into his new role, admitting he’d know him for 15 years.