Weekly Roundup · Week of 17 to 23 August 2026
The week in business IT & comms
The AI question moved this week from what these tools can do to what happens when they do something nobody asked for. The National Cyber Security Centre published interim advice on running AI agents, built around one idea worth borrowing: everything an agent can reach is the size of the problem when it goes wrong. Alongside it, two sets of numbers landed that describe who is actually being attacked, and the answer is not the FTSE 100.
- 01AI for Business
NCSC publishes interim advice on running AI agents safely
The guidance, published on 20 August, covers how much autonomy a task really needs, naming a person responsible for what an agent does, giving each agent its own identity and short-lived credentials, denying network access by default, and keeping the ability to stop an agent mid-task. Formal guidance will follow and replace it.
Read the full story - 02Cyber Security
Three-quarters of ransomware victims are mid-sized companies
Black Kite analysed 13,336 disclosed incidents going back to January 2023 and found 73% of attacks in North America and Europe hit firms turning over $10m to $1bn, a share that barely moved while incident volumes rose 44% between 2023 and 2025. Manufacturing accounted for 26% of mid-market victims, and UK firms were the most targeted in Europe.
- 03Cyber Security
UK fraud filings hit a record, with SIM-swap cases up 402%
Cifas recorded more than 220,000 cases on the National Fraud Database between January and June, the highest first half it has logged. Identity fraud rose 9% year on year to nearly 130,000 cases, and unauthorised SIM-swap filings jumped 402% to 4,109, now a tenth of everything reported.
- 04Cyber Security
Infostealer malware harvested 1.7 billion credentials in six months
Flashpoint counted 7.4 million devices infected in the first half of 2026, up 27% on the previous six months, and 1.7 billion credentials taken between January and June. Its report describes stolen logins being fed straight into automated credential stuffing and session testing across thousands of environments at once.
- 05Telephony & VoIP
Gamma confirms takeover talks with Waterland
Business ISP and IT provider Gamma Communications confirmed that Waterland Private Equity Investments is among the parties in discussions about a possible offer for the entire company, with the Giacom Group acting in concert and set to acquire certain divisions. ISPreview reported the market statement on 22 August. Waterland has until 18 September to announce a firm intention to bid or step back.
- 06Connectivity & Broadband
Openreach expands its 10Gbps XGS-PON rollout beyond the pilot
The 10Gbps capable full fibre technology will be made available to more than a million premises over the next 12 months, up from a pilot of around 40,000 in the Guildford and Woking areas, with roughly a third of the full fibre network targeted within five years. Openreach is offering maximum symmetric speeds of up to 8.5Gbps, and premises already on full fibre will typically need an engineer visit to fit a 10Gbps terminal.
What we’re watching
Two dates worth a diary note. The Takeover Panel has given Epiris until 2 September and Waterland until 18 September to make a firm offer for Gamma or step back, so the ownership of a sizeable part of the UK business comms supply chain should be clearer inside a month. The NCSC has said its interim AI advice will be built on and eventually replaced by formal guidance, and that is the version procurement teams will start quoting in tenders. In the background the analogue phone network still switches off on 31 January 2027, with no extension.
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