TalkTalk Receives A Ransom Call From Hackers Responsible for Security Breach
TalkTalk, a company that provides various television, phone, and internet services in the United Kingdom, has recently received a ransom demand from someone who is claiming to be behind a significant breach in their security. After this cyberattack, 4 million of their customers might be in danger of having their information leaked.
What Happened and What’s Being Investigated
It has been confirmed by a TalkTalk spokeswoman that they have been contacted by the hacker and that the hacker is seeking payment, they just do not know who the hacker is yet. The spokeswoman declined to elaborate on how much money the hacker was asking for and she stated that that was a matter for the police. According to details, this was a typical cyber attack that may have let vital customer information leak. Information such as bank details, credit card numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and account information.
The investigation has now turned over to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Christopher Graham’s, a member of the ICO, words on how the investigation was going to go were as follows: “The job of the Metropolitan Police in this case is to investigate the theft, the job of the Information Commissioner’s Office is to investigate why the thieves were able to get away with it.” Graham also pointed out how TalkTalk made a critical mistake and waited to inform the ICO of the attack. According to details, the ICO was informed about the attack Thursday at 4:30pm, however the attack started on Wednesday. The small delay was said to be one of the issues the ICO would examine in this case. This will be a very interesting story line down the road on how this all pans out.
TalkTalk’s Future
To say the future looks grim for TalkTalk may be an understatement at this point. Per reports, this is the third time TalkTalk has had an incident like this. Understandably, companies will always experience low-life hackers who try and attack their data bases, but three times is a bit much. TalkTalk might need to seriously consider upgrading whatever security they have.
As far as their customers go, TalkTalk has already warned their customers to keep an eye on their accounts for the next couple of days and if they notice any unusual activity to contact their bank and to contact Action Fraud which is the nations fraud and online crime reporting center. To say that customers should have to worry about these things might make them lose faith in TalkTalk especially if some of their customers do indeed have this information infringed. TalkTalk will have a very interesting couple of months with this investigation and the potential consequences they might endure.
