Tech Brief 29 November 2025 brings a triple hit of submarine drones, chip shortages, and council cyberattacks. Security, scarcity, and digital resilience are all in the spotlight today. Missed yesterday’s Tech Brief? Catch up here before diving in.
UK Navy Bets Big on Submarine Drones to Protect Undersea Cables
“A step-change,” the MOD calls it. Britain is preparing to roll out swarms of uncrewed underwater vehicles, or UUVs, thanks to partnerships with both defence giants and newer British tech startups. This time it’s real hardware, not another CGI-laden promo reel. These drones are being built to monitor and defend undersea cables, which keep your Netflix streaming, financial markets ticking, and military data silent and safe. The US and Australia are spending billions on their own submarine tech too.
Back in the 80s, British kit quietly shaped global defence. For anyone who’s wondered what happened to the tinkerers, here’s proof we’re not just consuming tech, we’re building it. The world rarely sees Blighty leading the way in new digital infrastructure. Yet here we are, hunting for submarines with the next generation of British manufacturing. What’s next, reissuing the ZX Spectrum as the drone command module?
London Councils Suffer Wave of Cyber Attacks, Shared IT Services Down
Here’s the boring, essential news. Four London boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, Hackney, Westminster, and Hammersmith and Fulham, have been hit by targeted cyber incursions that forced shared IT systems offline. Investigations are ongoing, with the National Cyber Security Centre called in.
This wasn’t a script kiddie with a prank virus. Instead, weaknesses in council networks left public services vulnerable to disruption. The effect? Citizens unable to access records, pay bills, or rely on digital council tools for basic needs.
Anyone who spent an afternoon rebooting RM Nimbuses in a school lab knows shared infrastructure promises cost savings, but also shared headaches. As above on national defence, it’s only as strong as the most neglected login or unpatched system. A hard lesson in digital Britain: the civil service, like submarine cables, needs real resilience.
Global Chip Makers Warn of New Shortages as AI Demand Spikes
How many projects have died on a lack of RAM? Back in the Amiga days, a missing memory module could leave games unplayable, but now the stakes are global. Chip makers say data centre demand, especially from hyperscale AI, is hoovering up DRAM and SSD stock. Orders are surging, prices are climbing, and shortages are forecast through 2027.
Server manufacturers and AI specialists are buying everything in sight. This means home users and small builders will feel the pinch: higher prices, longer waits. Not the first chip drought, and probably not the last.
If you’re planning a retro PC upgrade or hoping to resurrect an old unit this winter, don’t leave it until January. Vintage computing might be nostalgia, but the pain of scarcity is bang up to date.
From the Wayback Machine
On This Day: 1975 – Microsoft files its first paperwork and starts writing code for the Altair 8800, a machine with just 256 bytes of memory. Gates and Allen wrote BASIC for it, securing their first deal before even owning a working model. By the end of 1976, Microsoft was up and running, hiring friends and expanding abroad. Sometimes a little vision, a lot of luck, and friends from school are all it takes. The Altair wasn’t much to look at, but it changed who controlled the world’s computers.
Today’s Big Question
Tech Brief 29 November 2025 lands as a reminder that every era’s new tech comes with very old risks. Are we any better at building resilient systems than we were the last time we ran out of RAM or forgot to patch our servers? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to keep a few backups on floppy.
Keep a soldering iron near your heart, and your passwords nowhere obvious. See you at the next boot screen.
Missed yesterday’s Tech Brief? Catch up here
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