Profiles have also been taken from the Government’s own IT systems, it added.
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“Tens of thousands” of British identities are up for sale on the “dark web”, including bank account details and other personal information, according to senior government officials.
Last year, data belonging to 600,000 people was stolen from the government including the Department for Work and Pensions – with the Financial Times suggesting that enough information to completely forge a person’s identity has gone missing.
While the average cost of personal information online is roughly £19.60 ($30), personal information from governmental databases is referred to as the “crown jewels” on the Dark Web – and trades hands for around $75.
A government spokesperson, in a statement to the newspaper, claimed there were a number of “very effective” schemes in place as part of a £860million investment in cyber security.
He said: “We are looking carefully at the level of regulation”.
Described as the internet’s black market, the Dark Web can not be accessed with conventional search engines like Google.
“Every company board should be fully aware of the risk from cyber attack, and be confident that the company has proper security in place”.
TalkTalk – the phone and broadband provider – was targeted in a cyber attack last week.
TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said she was still unsure how numerous telecoms giant’s four million United Kingdom customers had been affected by the attack, which affected its website rather than its “core systems”.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in County Antrim on Monday in a joint investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Metropolitan Police’s cyber-crime unit.
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Chairman Andrew Tyrie said it is crucial that “firms, particularly financial institutions, are adequately equipped to protect consumers”.
