30th Oct 2015 13:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC on Friday confirmed the cyber attack which hit its website last week was smaller than initially anticipated and said the Metropolitan Police's investigation into the hack was ongoing, following an earlier statement from the police that a second teenager had been arrested.
TalkTalk last week said it had been the subject of a "significant and sustained" cyber attack on its website on Wednesday of that week. It had initially informed its entire customer base, around 4.0 million people, about the attack as a "precaution", but since said the attack had been much smaller than originally thought.
On Friday, it outlined the extent of the details accessed in the hack, saying less than 21,000 unique bank account numbers and sort codes had been compromised, along with less than 28,000 obscured credit and debit card details.
In addition to the bank account details accessed, TalkTalk said fewer than 15,000 customer dates of birth had been breached, plus fewer than than 1.2 million customer email addresses, names and phone numbers.
As the company has already said, the credit and debit card details accessed cannot be used for financial transactions, and the company has shared the affected bank details with the major banks in the UK to allow them to take the normal actions to protect customers' money.
Though the scale of the attack was smaller than initially though, TalkTalk urged its customers to be vigilant and to take precautions to protect themselves against possible scam phone calls and emails.
TalkTalk added the investigation into the attack by the Metropolitan Police's Cyber Crime Unit is ongoing, following an earlier statement released by the Met that a second teenager had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the hack.
The Met said the second suspect, who is 16-years-old, was arrested in Feltham in west London and said they had conducted a search on an address in Liverpool.
This follows on from the arrest of a 15-year-old from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Monday in relation to the data breach.
TalkTalk shares were up 3.9% to 250.70 pence on the news on Friday, one of the best performers in the FTSE 250.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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