Defending Against UNC3944: Cybercrime Hardening Guidance from the Frontlines
Background
UNC3944, which overlaps with public reporting on Scattered Spider, is a financially-motivated threat actor
This week, The Financial Times reports that London-based altnet Community Fibre has posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £8 million in 2024, marking the first time the company has been profitable.
Commenting on the milestone, Community Fibre CEO Graeme Oxby said the results showed that “broadband competition could be financially sustainable in the long run”.
Backed by around £1.1 billion in funding from private equity firm Warburg Pincus, Community Fibre currently covers roughly 1.35 million premises with full fibre, with around 336,000 subscribers.
However, the company’s positive EBITDA was counterbalanced by the fact that the company still reported a pre-tax loss of £118.5 million during the same period, as a result of its expensive infrastructure rollout.
Community Fibre notably paused its network rollout at the end of 2023 in an effort to save cash, shifting the company’s focus to improving take-up.
The company’s success story is far from the norm in the altnet market, with many of the company’s altnet rivals struggling to remain competitive and resorting to layoffs as rollouts slow.
At the weekend, a report from ISPreview confirmed that job cuts were taking place at Freedom Fibre as part of a “strategic reorganisation”, with the company noting that it “continues to engage is strategic growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions.”
Truespeed, Hyperoptic, and Fibrus are among those also considering or implementing redundancies, according to reports this year.
It should be noted, however, that Community Fibre itself has already been through this process, and cutting jobs as the company shifted its focus to take-up.
The sector’s financial discomfort was also on display last week when Liberty Global confirmed that its fibre joint venture nexfibre has reduced its coverage target to 2.5 million customers by the end of 2025 – a significant deceleration given its initial target of 5 million homes passed by 2026.
In its investment report, Liberty Global described the move as ‘retaining capital discipline in an increasingly irrational altnet environment and remaining opportunistic around M&A’.
In the same report, the company revealed that it has ‘decided to pause VMO2’s potential NetCo stake sale process to align with our JV partner’. That joint venture partner, Telefonica, is currently undergoing a major strategic review under new CEO Marc Murtra, who took over the role in March.
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Author: Ernestro Casas -
Background
UNC3944, which overlaps with public reporting on Scattered Spider, is a financially-motivated threat actor
This week, The Financial Times reports that London-based altnet Community Fibre has posted earnings before
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