British telecoms giant held to ransom by hackers putting four million customers at risk

[Jonathan Fairfield]

British telecoms giant held to ransom by hackers putting four million customers at risk

It is the biggest-ever cyberattack on a British company. Telecoms provider Talk Talk has had the personal details of some four million of its customers stolen and its website frozen after a sophisticated hack critics say could have been prevented.

A ransom demand has been sent to the company, and no-one seems to know from where the attack originated, although the hackers have claimed to have links with extremist Islam.

“There is a global problem associated with online businesses that data cannot be construed as genuinely safe at all times and it must now be the number one priority for global businesses with an online presence to protect their customers data and to protect their business integrity,” says analyst James Bevan.

It seems Talk Talk did not protect its clients by encrypting their data. This is third time the company has been attacked in a year. In both previous cases it was criticised for not doing more to safeguard its customers vital information.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-10-25

[arfurcrown]

Now perhaps the state cyber gurus here who are in favour of a single gateway internet system would do well to take heed of this matter.

The promise of action by hacker groups concerning the current proposal for a single gateway should not and must not be taken lightly.

Any such hacking attack could certainly have devastating results on the cyber world system here within the governmental, military, financial, business, and aviation sectors which could do tremendous damage to the economy as well as the country's security on many fronts..

[chainarong]

Just to highlight how serious a single gateway would damage Thai industry, government , communications and military , Thai hackers associated should sub- contract out to the ransom hackers inc and show Prayut and company how it is done , the ransom hackers also hacked into Microsoft awhile back on the new windows 10 download, holding everyone involved to ransom , so even though there wasn't any serious protection on this British site, there certainly was with Microsoft.

[klauskunkel]

It seems Talk Talk did not protect its clients by encrypting their data. This is third time the company has been attacked in a year. In both previous cases it was criticised for not doing more to safeguard its customers vital information.

they talked the talk only (or chatted the chat)...

[jlaw666]

A letter from talk talk.

The number of customers affected and the amount of data potentially stolen is smaller than originally thought. Our website was attacked, but our core systems weren’t and remain secure.

• On its own, none of the data that may have been accessed could be used to leave you financially worse off. • We don’t store unencrypted credit or debit card data on our site, so any card details which may have been accessed have the 6 middle digits blanked out. For example, it would appear as 012345XXXXXX6789. This means it can’t be used for financial transactions. • No My Account passwords have been accessed. • No banking details were taken that you won’t already be sharing with people when you write a cheque or give to someone so they can pay money into your account.

We will continue investigating and promise to keep you updated as we know more. In the meantime, we strongly encourage that you:

• Stay vigilant - TalkTalk will NEVER call customers and ask you to provide personal details or passwords. Please take all steps to check the true identity of any organisation that calls requesting personal information. If you have any doubts, please call us.