TalkTalk cyber-attack: Website hit by 'significant' breach

                                

TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding has confirmed that their website has been attached and they wanted to take the precaution of contacting all of their customers as fast as possible. Police are investigating a "significant and sustained cyber-attack" on the TalkTalk website, the UK company says.

The phone and broadband provider, which has over four million UK customers, said banking details and personal information could have been accessed.

TalkTalk said potentially all customers could be affected but it was too early to know what data had been stolen.

The Metropolitan Police said no-one had been arrested over Wednesday's attack but enquiries were ongoing.

TalkTalk said in a statement that a criminal investigation had been launched on Thursday.

It said there was a chance that some of the following customer data, not all of which was encrypted, had been accessed:

• Names and addresses
• Dates of birth
• Email addresses
• Telephone numbers
• TalkTalk account information
• Credit card and bank details

Cyber security consultant and former Scotland Yard detective Adrian Culley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a Russian Islamist group had posted online to claim responsibility for the attacks.

He said hackers claiming to be a cyber-jihadi group had posted data which appeared to be TalkTalk customers' private information - although he stressed their claim was yet to be verified or investigated.

Dido Harding, chief executive of the TalkTalk group, told BBC News the authorities were investigating and she could not comment on the claims.

Source: BBC