COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Police are investigating after a "significant and sustained cyber-attack" on the TalkTalk website, the UK company has confirmed.



The phone and broadband provider, which has over 4 million customers in the UK, said credit card and bank details could have been accessed.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said: "A criminal investigation was launched by the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit following a significant and sustained cyber attack on our website yesterday.

"That investigation is ongoing, but unfortunately there is a chance that some of the following data has been compromised: names, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, TalkTalk account information, credit card details and/or bank details.

"We are continuing to work with leading cyber crime specialists and the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened and the extent of any information accessed."

A Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit spokesperson said: "We are investigating an allegation of data theft.

"The theft was reported to the Met on Wednesday, 21 October. There have been no arrests and enquiries are ongoing."

The company's chief executive, Dido Harding, said: "TalkTalk constantly updates its systems to make sure they are as secure as possible against the rapidly evolving threat of cyber crime, impacting an increasing number of individuals and organisations.

"We take any threat to the security of our customers' data extremely seriously and we are taking all the necessary steps to understand what has happened here."

TalkTalk was informing its customers immediately about the attack as a precaution, she added.

Ms Harding said the website was now secure again and the company had also contacted the major banks asking them to monitor for any suspicious activity on customers' accounts.

She said that every customer would also be getting a year's free credit monitoring.

A Police spokesman confirmed they were investigating an allegation of data theft.

He said: “There have been no arrests and enquiries are ongoing."

TalkTalk was informing its customers immediately about the attack as a precaution, she added.

"We take any threat to the security of our customers' data extremely seriously and we are taking all the necessary steps to understand what has happened here."

TalkTalk cyber-attack not as bad as first thought, company says

TalkTalk has said the amount of customers’ financial information stolen by hackers is “materially lower” than first thought and would not allow money to be taken from bank accounts.

The embattled telecoms company said on Saturday that the cyber-attack, which took place on Wednesday, targeted its website and not its core systems.

“We do not store complete credit card details on the website; any credit card details that may have been accessed had a series of numbers hidden and therefore are not usable for financial transactions,” TalkTalk said.

Dido Harding, TalkTalk’s chief executive, told Sky News: “The financial information they have on its own is not enough for them to access your bank account.”

She warned customers not to give out financial details if they were contacted by phone or email by anyone asking for personal information: “Those are criminals doing that and we all need to make sure that we don’t let them win.”

Boy, 15, arrested in Northern Ireland over TalkTalk hack

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Northern Ireland over the TalkTalk hacking attack, Scotland Yard has said.

Metropolitan Police said a house was searched in County Antrim on Monday afternoon.

The boy was arrested on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences.

He has been taken into custody at a police station in Antrim. A search of the address is ongoing and inquiries continue.

The statement said this was a joint investigation involving the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and detectives from the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU).