TalkTalk Hack – Incident Smaller than Suspected
According to the company, the TalkTalk hack did not seem as bad as it could have been. The day, a second teenager had been arrested in connection with the hacking of customer details from the company, it had been reported that around 21,000 unique bank account numbers and sort codes had been accessed. He had been held on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences and was bailed out later on, after detectives searched an address in Feltham, according to Scotland Yard. A 15 year old boy had also been arrested and then bailed out in Northern Ireland for hacking. The Metropolitan Police had mentioned that officers had investigated a residential address in Liverpool. Together with the account numbers, thousands of hidden credit card details, dates of birth as well as over a million customer email addresses and phone numbers were conceded in the cyber-attack. Early reports recommended that the company’s four million customers could have had their personal data accessed. Moreover the company also defined the incident as considerably smaller than earlier suspected. CEO of TalkTalk, Dio Harding had been repeatedly apologising for the breach.
The MPs would be looking into the attack with culture minister Ed Vaizey stating that the government does not seem to be against compulsory encryption for firms having customer data. According to TalkTalk, the total figures are –
- 21,000 unique bank account numbers as well as sort codes
- 28,000 obscured credit and debit card details
- 15,000 customer dates of birth and
- 2 million email addresses names as well as phone numbers of customers.
TalkTalk Cautions Customers to be Alert
The company had informed that not all of the data that was accessed had been encrypted but state that the credit and debit card details were tokenised, a developed standard than some forms of encryption. TalkTalk had cautioned customers to be alert and report any suspicious bank account activity immediately when it has been noticed. Phone and broadband provider that had over 4 million UK customers had stated that they would be informing the affected customers, what information had been accessed. They have also stated that any stolen credit or debit card details were incomplete and hence could not be utilised for financial transaction. However, have advised precaution and to remain vigilant against fraud.
TalkTalk’s Lack of Security
Dido Harding had said that the scale of attack being much smaller than suspected, it should not lessen from the seriousness of the issue. She further added that they are aware that the need to work hard in earning back the trust seems essential and everyone is committed in doing so.She informed that she was disappointed in learning that victims of other TalkTalk security breaches who had lost thousands of pounds were told by the company that they were not responsible for their losses and had been refusing in paying the compensation.It seemed clear that the people would have not lost their money had it not been for TalkTalk’s careless security. The company had been unsuccessful in working hard to regain the trust and individuals will no doubt never deal with TalkTalk again in the near future.
