TalkTalk’s chief executive has warned all United Kingdom companies could be under threat from a cyber attack as she revealed she has drafted in defence experts after the firm’s website was hacked.
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Industry analysts have openly criticised TalkTalk’s security systems in the past and say that the company’s reacted slowly and poorly to breaches, failing to encrypt and make data secure.
Any credit card details accessed were incomplete – with many numbers appearing as an x – and “not usable” for financial transactions, it added.
TalkTalk shares have fallen sharply as investors continue to shun the firm in the wake of last week’s cyber-attack.
TalkTalk’s website was breached on Wednesday, and it was thought that millions of customers’ information, including bank account details, were stolen.
KitGuru Says: Do you think Talk Talk should be fined for allowing its customer data to be copied away without much encryption protection?
“We hope this news will provide a few assurance to our customers as we continue to work through the rest of the investigation”.
“You need to encourage a culture and a level of responsibility where all large organizations… take serious ownership and responsibility for the privacy of people’s financial and personal data rather than having a cavalier attitude, which we have seen in so many cases”, he said. Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Ms Harding said: “Waiving standard terms and conditions is not something sensible I can do today”.
The company is advising customers to keep an eye on their bank account though, and is also offering a years’ worth of free credit monitoring alerts.
Report any unusual activity on your accounts to your bank and, if you are in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, to the national fraud and internet crime reporting centre Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or www.actionfraud.police.uk.
You can’t possibly have missed the news last week that TalkTalk was subjected to a sustained attack over a period of time which saw the private data of over four million customers compromised. The attacks are understood to be unrelated.
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The Metropolitan Police says it is in the early stages of investigating the latest hack, as well as a ransom demand from a group purporting to be behind it. No arrests have been made in the case.
