News
- Guilford County, Pima County, and Charlotte are pausing new data centers, but none of the pauses currently affect projects already under construction
- Pima County, AZ, has passed a 120-day pause that does not affect existing projects, even as its legality remains disputed
- Charlotte, NC, wants to extend its 150-day pause by 11 months to October 2027, and Guilford County, NC, holds an October 15 hearing on a moratorium of up to 180 days, even though it has no pending data center applications
In less than two weeks of September 2026, three local governments in two states moved against new data centers, with one passing to date: Pima County, Arizona, adopted one on September 22 and, within a week, the Goldwater Institute said it was illegal.
Guilford County, North Carolina, voted on September 17 to hold a hearing on a moratorium on September 28, and Charlotte set a hearing on extending its own pause into October 2027, a net increase of 11 months, should it pass.
The moves come amid backlash from residents as local officials scramble to keep hyperscale campuses out of cities otherwise earmarked for large buildouts because of cheap land, electricity, lax local laws, or a desirable mix of all three.
A pause with nothing to pauseGuilford County, North Carolina, has not paused anything yet despite its Board of Commissioners voting unanimously to schedule an October 15 public hearing on a temporary moratorium of up to 180 days on new data center projects. This is for two reasons: the ordinance still needs to be drafted, heard, and potentially adopted.
The other reason, somewhat ironically, is simply because there is no actual project to stop or pause to begin with. Planning Director Leslie Bell told the board the county has no pending building permits or other requests for a new data center in its unincorporated areas, the Rhino Times reported. It seems to be laying the groundwork to prevent future legal challenges. This, however, comes as more North Carolina cities and towns push data center moratoriums, with Bell putting the number at over 18.
Pine County, Arizona, has taken a more nuanced, albeit somewhat underwhelming, approach. As the only of the three counties we are covering with an active moratorium in place, it also has one that does not address the projects residents have raised as an issue at meetings.
The moratorium passed on September 22, when its Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to pause new data center development in unincorporated areas for 120 days, fails to cover two key projects already underway: Project Blue and Project Gravel. The county's proposal still faces a potential legal challenge, as the Goldwater Institute sent a demand letter asking the county to rescind the pause altogether.
Charlotte, North Carolina, whose council voted 11-0 on June 8 to pause new data centers for 150 days, is considering buying even more time to make a final decision beyond the four months it has already spent.
On September 28, the council set an October 12 public hearing on extending the pause by 11 months, through October 11, 2027, the Charlotte Observer reported. At-large Council member Dimple Ajmera called it "one of the consequential policy decisions that we will be making."
The problem is more complex: data centers are allowed by right in eight of Charlotte's zoning districts, so they need no council approval there, and council members have raised concerns about that gap since at least 2023, but a policy review has yet to address it. As Deputy City Manager Alyson Craig told a council committee in September, there was no clear path for ordinance changes.
The problems of each county are different, but one could argue that they are considerably similar in the way that all of them are looking to address a gap in the rulebook rather than a wave of upcoming projects at a time when there is increased interest by hyperscalers to find cheap land with cheaper, readily available access to water and power.
While rulebooks can be updated, local governments have to wrestle with the tradeoff: data centers will create few long-term jobs, but they can offer high taxable value in some cases through local taxation, in addition to the power and water bills they will inevitably generate.
At the same time, residents who voted said councils in are concerned about potentially higher power bills and limited access to water, resulting in a perfect storm where legal challenges like the one from the Goldwater Institute only add to the chaos for counties that have never had the legislature to handle such issues in the past.
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Slimmer and cheaper than normal treadmills, they can slide under a sofa or bed when not in use, so they're easy to store. They're not fast because they lack guardrails, but they're perfect for getting you moving while watching TV or working (alongside a standing desk). Having this kind of low-impact cardio fitness equipment at home makes it easy to hit step goals and keep moving, even during winter, helping you to stay healthy.
My pick of the deals so far is the Urevo Spacewalk E1L, now available at Best Buy for just $129.99 (was $189.99), saving you $60. Check out the deal in full below:
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While we haven't reviewed this model, we have reviewed its sibling treadmill, the Urevo Spacewalk E4w, which shot right to the top of our best under-desk treadmills buying guide. It has a similar weight, top speed, and power, so I feel comfortable recommending the E1L with the deal on, based on the quality of the E4w.
Not in the US? You can check out this UK deal from Amazon on another Urevo treadmill, the 2-in-1.
2-in-1 under desk treadmill: was £139.99 now £99.99
Save £40 on the 2-in-1 treadmill. With a similar 2.5HP motor and profile as the treadmill above, the main difference here is the treadmill's incline capability, with the capacity to go up to 9% to simulate more challenging hill walks. View Deal
Whether you're looking to work on a standing desk or you're interested in getting your step count goals smashed while staying cozy at home, an under-desk treadmill is a smart health purchase, especially for exercisers who may not enjoy or be able to take part in higher-impact training. I've reviewed quite a few walking pads during my stint as TechRadar's fitness editor, and asked writers to review others for me.
They're useful gadgets. Research found that for people unable to tolerate moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, lower-intensity walking was still beneficial for improving health. If you loathe running or cycling, sticking to one of the best streaming services and settling in for a binge-watch while walking on a treadmill might be just the thing to get you exercising.
- US financial services faced nearly 40,000 phishing URLs during H1 2026
- Attackers used 645 hosting providers to distribute financial phishing campaigns
- Free hosting carried 12.6% of phishing URLs targeting financial services
Phishing campaigns targeting American financial institutions are spreading across a fragmented web of hosting services, making fraudulent infrastructure difficult to contain.
New research from Netcraft has uncovered almost 40,000 unique phishing URLs connected to US financial services were discovered in the first half of 2026.
Behind those URLs were 645 hosting providers and 576 registrars, while newer services and automated AI tools helped attackers move quickly between platforms.
Cheap infrastructure is helping campaigns multiplyThe scale of the activity becomes clearer when the services carrying these attacks are examined rather than the fraudulent websites alone.
Free developer and application hosting accounted for 12.6% of phishing URLs recorded against US financial services during H1 2026.
That means approximately one in eight observed attacks relied upon infrastructure that attackers could access without paying conventional hosting fees.
Netcraft observed significant changes in infrastructure use between Q1 and Q2, suggesting criminals were switching services as infrastructure became unavailable or less useful.
AI is making that movement easier by helping users create websites, reproduce legitimate pages and deploy malicious infrastructure with less technical effort.
Netcraft said generative AI website builders and cloning tools increasingly include free web hosting options, further reducing the work required to establish campaigns.
The financial brands being impersonated also show where attackers are concentrating their efforts across the sector during the reporting period.
Payment service providers accounted for 37.2% of observed phishing activity, with PayPal representing 80.6% of attacks within that subsector.
American Express accounted for 72.8% of observed activity involving card networks, showing how heavily campaigns can focus on recognizable financial brands.
Omegatech emerges as another source of attack infrastructureThe infrastructure picture changed further with the emergence of Omegatech, a paid hosting provider based in the Seychelles, which started operations in January 2026.
By June, Netcraft attributed roughly 3% of observed phishing attacks against US financial services to infrastructure hosted through Omegatech.
One cluster contained 16 .es domains that generated 585 unique attack URLs between March 25 and April 21 2026.
Those domains were used to impersonate 41 financial brands through subdomains, allowing one cluster to support campaigns against numerous institutions.
Registration data for many of those domains was unavailable, limiting visibility into the companies responsible for registering the infrastructure.
Omegatech's emergence came as another major campaign was winding down after targeting Fidelity Investments through the Darcula phishing platform.
That operation fell sevenfold from Q1 to Q2, after previously accounting for more than half of phishing infrastructure impersonating Fidelity.
Meanwhile, financially motivated North Korean groups and organized criminal operators continued pursuing banks, cryptocurrency services and compromised accounts.
The changing mix suggests that attackers are not relying on one platform, campaign or technique to reach financial customers.
Financial companies are advised to closely monitor newly registered domains, restrict suspicious links and strengthen employee verification procedures against impersonation attempts.