TalkTalk hit by 'significant' data breach


Details

Editor

| 23 October 2015





UK ISP and IPTV service provider TalkTalk has been the victim of what it called a significant and sustained cyberattack on its website.


The attack, which may the biggest of its kind on a household UK firm, happened some time on 22 October when hackers may have gained access to the personal data of up to over four million people.

The full extent the breach has yet to be finalised but TalkTalk conceded that "there is a chance" the compromised data includes company names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, TalkTalk account information, and, most worryingly, credit card details and/or bank details. The company attempted to assure that its website was now secure again and TV and broadband services had not been affected by the attack.

TalkTalk said that it was continuing to work with leading cybercrime specialists and a criminal investigation has been launched by the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit in London to establish exactly what happened and the extent of any information accessed. It added that immediately it had contacted all of its customers and major banks who would be monitoring for any suspicious activity on customers' accounts.

Despite admitting to the successful attack, TalkTalk insisted that it takes any threat to the security of customers' data very seriously and that it constantly reviewed and updated systems to make sure they were as secure as possible. In a statement it said: "We're taking all the necessary steps to understand this incident and to protect as best we can against similar attacks in future. Unfortunately cyber criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and attacks against companies which do business online are becoming more frequent."

TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding added: "TalkTalk constantly updates its systems to make sure they are as secure as possible against the rapidly evolving threat of cybercrime, impacting an increasing number of individuals and organisations."

TalkTalk says that its website is now secure and advised customers to change their passwords when they log on and monitor their credit history for suspicious activity. Yet as of the morning of 23 October, the TalkTalk website was still unavailable. The company simply posted a message saying "sorry we are currently facing technical issues, our engineers are working hard to fix it. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause".