A councillor expressed regret for liking a post calling for a Labour MP to be shot, insisting no intent to promote violence, while WatchGuard highlights a 1,548% rise in new malware and marks 30 years of work with MSPs
Councillor apologises after liking post that urged MP be shot; cybersecurity firm flags huge malware surge
A local councillor has apologised after reacting to a Facebook post that urged violence against a Labour MP — while, separately, cybersecurity vendor WatchGuard Technologies warned of an unprecedented jump in new malware samples as it marked 30 years of work with Managed Service Providers (MSPs).
What happened – On 24 February, Councillor Simon Evans publicly apologised after discovering that a post he had liked promoted the shooting of an elected official. Evans said he had not grasped the full context when he clicked the reaction, called the mistake “poor judgement” and insisted he does not condone violence.
– Around the same time, WatchGuard released data showing a 1,548% increase in unique malware samples, a surge the company used to underscore evolving threats and to highlight product updates and MSP-focused services as it celebrated three decades in the industry.
Why these stories matter One episode speaks to how quickly a single online gesture can become reputational poison; the other shows how fast and varied digital threats are getting. Together they point to two pressing needs: better digital judgement from public figures and more robust cyber defences from organisations and service providers.
Clicks have consequences The controversy around Evans is a reminder that social media strips context away from actions. A momentary click can be read as an endorsement, and for public figures that can trigger immediate scrutiny and a scramble to contain damage. Evans followed a common damage-control playbook — acknowledge the mistake, explain the circumstances, and deny malicious intent — but the incident raises broader questions about the expectations placed on elected representatives’ online behaviour.
More than personal responsibility, the case highlights systemic issues: platform design that amplifies snippets, inconsistent moderation, and a lack of clear guidance or training for representatives on how to handle political content. Voters and officials alike would benefit from stronger digital literacy and clearer norms around engagement.
Malware on the rise WatchGuard’s figures paint a worrying picture for defenders. A 1,548% rise in unique malware samples suggests attackers are experimenting more aggressively — using encryption, polymorphism and other evasion techniques to slip past traditional safeguards. For security teams, that means signature-based detection is no longer enough.
Analysts recommend accelerating patch management, segmenting networks to limit lateral movement, integrating threat intelligence feeds, and adopting behavioural and AI-assisted detection that can spot anomalies rather than relying solely on known signatures.
A wake-up call for MSPs WatchGuard urged MSPs to move from reactive fixes to a preventive, layered security model. The vendor emphasised combining unified threat management with zero-trust principles, continuous telemetry and AI-driven analytics to surface subtle threats. For MSPs, the message is clear: clients expect proactive defence, not just rapid incident response.
Taken together, the two stories — one about a single regrettable like, the other about a spike in malicious code — underline how fragile trust and security have become in the digital age. Both require better instincts from people and stronger systems from organisations.
