MoneySuperMarket has published research showing that 41% of UK business decision-makers use social media for business advice, with tax-related topics the most common area of interest.

The survey of 390 UK business decision-makers found that 31% had used social media for guidance on self-assessment or tax returns, making it the most searched topic. Business expenses that can be claimed ranked second at 24%, followed by side hustles or additional income at 21%, VAT rules or thresholds at 20%, how much tax to set aside at 15%, and business banking or cash flow at 14%.

Some business owners are also acting on advice without checking it elsewhere. While 44% said they verify information from social media with an accountant or official source, MoneySuperMarket estimated that 169,200 business owners follow social media advice without verifying it with other sources.

This has led to problems for some respondents. Nearly one in 10 decision-makers, or 8%, said they had acted on business advice from social media that they later discovered was incorrect.

Among those who said they had followed inaccurate guidance, 8% reported not setting aside enough money for tax, while 7% said they had paid more tax than expected.

Usage patterns

Use of social media for operational advice differed sharply by business size. Medium-sized businesses with 50 to 249 employees were the most frequent users, with 25% saying they very or quite often use social media to help run their business.

That compared with 6% of microbusiness owners with fewer than 10 employees, suggesting larger small and medium-sized employers are more likely than the smallest firms to use social platforms as a regular source of day-to-day business information.

Business age also appeared to influence behaviour. One in 20 decision-makers at companies trading for less than five years said they use social media very often for business advice, while the share fell to 2% among those at businesses operating for more than 35 years.

The findings highlight how far social platforms have become part of the information mix for owners and managers dealing with practical tax and finance questions. They also suggest newer businesses may be more inclined to seek informal or fast-moving online advice than long-established firms.

Alicia Hempsted, Business Insurance Expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “Social media can be a powerful tool for useful information for business owners, however, it’s essential that decision-makers fact-check the advice with verified sources and professional government guidelines to ensure that it is correct.”

The survey focused on companies with between one and 249 employees, covering a broad range of small and medium-sized businesses across the UK. The results indicate that, for many respondents, social media is not just a marketing channel but also a source of guidance on compliance, tax and financial administration.

The prominence of self-assessment, tax returns and VAT in the responses underlines the pressure on smaller businesses to navigate complex rules with limited time and resources. At the same time, the findings show the risks of relying on unverified posts or videos when decisions can affect tax bills and cash reserves.

For advisers and official bodies, the data may reinforce concerns that business owners are increasingly encountering financial guidance in spaces not designed to check accuracy before publication. For firms, the research points to a gap between the speed and accessibility of social media information and the need for reliable professional or official advice when money is at stake.

Chameleon Technology has launched the IHD7-VWAN for the UK government’s Virtual Wide Area Network initiative. The device is intended for homes that have struggled to connect to smart metering services.

The launch follows the introduction of VWAN, a scheme developed with the Data Communications Company to address connectivity gaps in properties that cannot reliably send or receive traditional smart meter signals.

The new in-home display uses a household’s Wi-Fi connection, with the consumer’s consent, to help pass smart meter data to the Data Communications Company. It creates two Wi-Fi connections: one for a secure tunnel carrying smart meter data to the DCC, and another linking to Chameleon’s cloud systems for product support.

The approach is aimed at so-called black spots, where connectivity problems have left some households unable to use smart metering. Information released alongside the launch said the wider VWAN initiative could support smart metering in up to 350,000 hard-to-connect homes.

That figure underlines a persistent issue in the UK’s smart meter rollout. Geography, building type and local signal conditions have prevented some properties from maintaining the communications link needed for meter data to flow through the national network. VWAN is intended to provide another route by relying on home broadband rather than traditional communications paths.

For Chameleon, the new product extends its existing role in the in-home display market. More than 12 million of its displays are already installed in homes across Great Britain, while its wider customer base reaches more than 20 million people.

The IHD7-VWAN combines several functions in one unit, including consumer access device services, prepayment functionality and the new Virtual Wide Area Network connection. This integrated design is intended to reduce operational complexity for energy suppliers while giving more options to households that have previously been left outside the smart metering system.

Connectivity gap

The challenge addressed by VWAN has been a long-running one for the energy sector. Smart meters rely on communications links to send readings and other information through the Data Communications Company, which acts as the national data network for Britain’s smart meter system. In homes where that connection is weak or unavailable, meters may lose smart functions or may not be installed with full functionality at all.

Using in-home displays as part of the communications route marks a different approach. Rather than depending solely on external signal reach, the VWAN model uses the household’s own Wi-Fi network to bridge the gap. That means consumer consent is part of the process, because the connection uses the home internet service to support meter communications.

Rollout support

Chameleon said it supports the staged rollout of the VWAN programme. The Harrogate-based company also has operations in France and Hong Kong, and focuses on devices and data services linked to energy use in homes and businesses.

Kyle Brown commented on the product launch as the wider initiative begins to take shape. “The Virtual Wide Area Network is a vital development for smart meter connectivity, and the launch of our IHD7-VWAN demonstrates Chameleon’s commitment to supporting this next phase of the rollout. We are continually pushing to help bring the benefits of smart metering to as many homes as possible and feel very proud to be working with the energy industry and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to continue helping the industry overcome connectivity challenges. Chameleon is leading the way in enabling a more connected, data-driven home energy ecosystem,” said Brown, Chief Commercial Officer, Chameleon Technology.

The introduction of VWAN adds another layer to efforts to complete smart meter coverage across Britain, particularly in areas where the existing network has proved difficult to extend. The remaining gap, affecting up to 350,000 homes, suggests the issue remains significant for suppliers and policymakers seeking wider smart meter adoption.

Chameleon’s device enters this part of the market with a design tailored to the new framework set by government and the Data Communications Company, linking a familiar household energy display to a new communications function for homes that have remained outside the reach of standard smart meter signals.

Ethiack said the number of cyber vulnerabilities it identified across client IT environments rose 106% over the past year, increasing from 17,500 to more than 36,000.

The Portugal-based cybersecurity group said the rise came despite only a modest increase in the number of digital assets under monitoring. Vulnerabilities per monitored asset climbed from 0.9 to 1.7 over the same period, indicating a sharper rate of exposure across the systems it tested.

The figures add to broader evidence of a shift in how attackers gain entry to organisations. Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found that exploited software vulnerabilities accounted for 31% of cyber breaches, up from 20% a year earlier, overtaking stolen passwords as the most common initial access route.

Ethiack said its platform tracked more than 190,000 digital assets during the year and now monitors more than 21,000 in-scope assets each month. Its client base grew 30% as the company expanded into the UK and Switzerland.

Threat speed

Ethiack linked the increase in discovered weaknesses to both improved detection and a faster-moving threat environment. Industry research it cited said the median time between a vulnerability being disclosed and being actively exploited has fallen from 771 days in 2018 to a matter of hours.

That shift has narrowed the time available for security teams to respond once flaws are discovered. In some cases, vulnerabilities are identified and attacked before public disclosure, leaving little room for patching or other defensive action.

Jorge Monteiro, Chief Executive Officer of Ethiack, described the pace of change as the main concern for defenders.

“The most important change we’ve seen over the past year isn’t the type of vulnerabilities attackers are exploiting. It’s the speed at which they’re finding and weaponising them.

For years, organisations could assume they had days, weeks or even months to identify and remediate vulnerabilities. That assumption no longer holds. Today, attackers can use AI to identify weaknesses, generate exploits and launch attacks in a matter of hours.

Perhaps most concerning is that AI can now help attackers reverse-engineer security patches themselves. Organisations may spend weeks developing and testing a fix, only for cybercriminals to analyse the patch and use it to identify the underlying vulnerability and attack it within minutes.

The mismatch between attacker speed and defender speed is growing. Periodic security assessments and annual penetration tests were designed for a different era. Organisations now need continuous monitoring of their attack surface and validation of any vulnerabilities to keep pace with the machine speed and scale of threats,” Monteiro said.

Company growth

The business added 13 employees and six ethical hackers over the year. Founded in Portugal in 2022 by André Baptista and Monteiro, it works with organisations across Europe, including ANA, Portugal’s national airport operator.

The increase in vulnerabilities identified does not necessarily mean every client environment became less secure in absolute terms, but it does point to a larger pool of weaknesses being uncovered as attack surfaces expand and tools improve. Modern corporate systems often span cloud services, third-party software, employee devices and internet-facing applications, increasing the number of possible entry points.

For security teams, the data adds to pressure to move faster on validation and remediation. If attackers can use AI to analyse newly issued patches and infer the flaws they address, the traditional gap between patch release and practical exploitation may continue to shrink.

That trend is becoming more significant as the volume of known software flaws rises each year. The challenge for organisations is not only discovering weaknesses, but also determining which are exploitable and urgent enough to prioritise before attackers act first.