**Urgent** Cyberattack on TalkTalk website **Urgent**

There has been a serious cyber-attack on the TalkTalk website, it is rumoured that customers' credit card and personal details may have been accessed;
www.bbc.co.uk...

This is the second time this year that they have been targeted.

a reply to: royspeed

Hi
You should ask the mods to add "ALERT!" to your thread title, this is a serious matter, peoples bank details may have been stolen!

ETA: Talk talk customers are being advised to check their Inbox for email from Talktalk.


ETA: Thanks to Springer for updating the title.

originally posted by: VoidHawk
a reply to: royspeed

Hi
You should ask the mods to add "ALERT!" to your thread title, this is a serious matter, peoples bank details may have been stolen!

ETA: Talk talk customers are being advised to check their Inbox for email from Talktalk.

I'd go with 'Urgent, Urgent', it's more attention grabbing in my honest own opinion.

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978

originally posted by: VoidHawk
a reply to: royspeed

Hi
You should ask the mods to add "ALERT!" to your thread title, this is a serious matter, peoples bank details may have been stolen!

ETA: Talk talk customers are being advised to check their Inbox for email from Talktalk.

I'd go with 'Urgent, Urgent', it's more attention grabbing in my honest own opinion.

Agreed!
I messaged the management, but I suspect I'm low on their list Maybe you should do the same

originally posted by: VoidHawk

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978

originally posted by: VoidHawk
a reply to: royspeed

Hi
You should ask the mods to add "ALERT!" to your thread title, this is a serious matter, peoples bank details may have been stolen!

ETA: Talk talk customers are being advised to check their Inbox for email from Talktalk.

I'd go with 'Urgent, Urgent', it's more attention grabbing in my honest own opinion.

Agreed!
I messaged the management, but I suspect I'm low on their list

Maybe you should do the same

I'm even lower, it would be futile, in my honest own opinion.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978


Meanwhile thousands of peoples bank accounts may be being robbed.

a reply to: VoidHawk

Oh well, I am not a talktalk customer, but still 'URGENT, URGENT'.

I really hope that helps.

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
a reply to: VoidHawk

Oh well, I am not a talktalk customer, but still 'URGENT, URGENT'.

I'm not either, but several of my friends use TT. They are quite popular and do offer a good service. A friend of mine uses them for his gaming connection, he gets a steady ping of 20, really upsets those he plays against

"Urgent" added.

I have friends who are members of TT as well, this may be the end of them if they don't get their security in order. Trust me when I tell you that it's NOT cheap to run a secure website that gets serious traffic, I wish TalkTalk the best but they need to step up and bite the bullet I think.

Forgive my ignorance...

Who in the wide world web is TalkTalk???

a reply to: Springer

Thanks for that!

originally posted by: seagull
Forgive my ignorance...

Who in the wide world web is TalkTalk???

Internet supplier.

a reply to: royspeed

This is the 2nd time it has happened in a few months. I have had two problems already with them relating to my personal details being hacked, this will be the 3rd.

The first time someone at their South African Durban call centre was passing on customers' details to scammers. The 2nd time was the major hack and now this.

It means that the vulnerability will persist as those customer details make the rounds, sold as mass data of bank details to all manner of criminals world wide. Basically, if you are a Talk Talk customer then you must keep an eye on your bank account now and there is no date at which it will ever be safe again. I am still getting phone calls from scammers relating to the first hack.

Two things can happen: unauthorised withdrawals on credit or debit cards or from bank accounts, or phone calls that seek to gain further personal info in order to achieve said unauthorised withdrawals.

Obviously, Talk Talk are not bothering to value their customers' security properly for this to be happening so frequently. The main reason I stick with them is because the deal I have is just too good and I will never get a cheap deal like this anywhere else. I am paying less than half of what other people are paying. The bank will cover you if you do lose money from your account so do not worry too much.

Hackers and scammers are the poison of the digital age. It is really no different to a stranger coming into your house and stealing from you and compromising you very personally indeed.

Thanks to Springer for upgrading the post title to fully reflect the importance of the situation.
I am not personally a TalkTalk customer, but I am sure that they should be taking this latest attack much more seriously than they apparently are, given the danger to their customers' finances.
As a supposedly responsible company, I would like to know why they have obviously not upgraded their firewall and/or protection software to try and avoid such as this?

a reply to: royspeed

Holy shiat batman, this is urgent!
Or is this Sparta!!!!



**after thorough investigation it has been concluded, that this is infact Sparta!!!**

originally posted by: royspeed
As a supposedly responsible company, I would like to know why they have obviously not upgraded their firewall and/or protection software to try and avoid such as this?

Maybe they did?
They are immensely popular, about four million customers in the uk I believe, and that makes them a target!
Its like Windows and Linux, if you were a hacker would you create a virus to target the few linux boxes or the billions of windows boxes?

a reply to: seagull

TalkTalk are a UK internet service and phone line provider. Essentially their business model is centred around the provision of landline telephone connections, broadband internet provision, and other communications packages.

Because everyone needs to communicate, going after a communications firm like theirs is a fairly smart choice for a hacker or group thereof, because they have such a massive customer base, involving customers from all manner of markets. Its a pretty big deal, and potentially a very damaging strike against the company. TalkTalk do not stand to lose directly from this, although market prices for their stock may take a hit. But it is the knock on effects that will be telling. Aside from the market price drop, you have the potential that customers will not feel secure in joining up with TalkTalk, if they do not feel that the company can secure their personal data.

It is their customers, after all, who stand to be robbed through the net, using the information which has been levered out of the TalkTalk systems. And so, if TalkTalk customers feel threatened and leave, or potential customers take their business elsewhere en masse, then TalkTalk could find itself in hot water. If this is not an isolated incident at the company, then it suggests that either someone is targeting specific information, or that whomever is doing this has found a specific weakness to exploit in that companies security.

The most effective way to perform internet abuse, the way which would get a hacker caught the least, and benefit the most, is to always change their targets, the nature of the company or individual targeted, the way they made their money, the amount of money they made, the amount stolen, the methodology used to carve their security up and remove it from their path. Like any criminal activity, patterns are easily spotted if a criminal performs the same carbon copy plan, for each and every job.

Of course, that assumes that the perpetrator of both infiltrations was the same individual, or collective. If it was not the same individual or collective, then perhaps the first lot hit the place, and then passed on what they learned to another individual or collective, although that sounds wrong to me...off...like bad milk.

The only way I see this having been two separate entities having gone after the same company, is if TalkTalk have the saddest little security set up ever seen in a major communications company. Mind you, I know next to sod all about computers, but I do know a fair bit about security. One breach is a learning experience. Two is shabby work. There should never be a third.

a reply to: royspeed

I'm with TalkTalk and this has peeved me off. I'll be leaving tomorrow and asking my bank to change my debit card (

Not amused

My hunch is that Experian are responsible, again. Think about this - what could a credit agency possibly want with detailed financial transactions for 4 million customers of a telecommunications company? That’s a bit like asking why an insurance company would want to know how often a customer holds a mobile phone to their head! It’s also worth considering that TalkTalk may be facing insolvency or have reason to believe that there is an inevitable problem in the not-too-distant future... and that this is a way of paying off the debts.

Why exactly have TalkTalk immediately offered all of its customers a free one-year trial of credit monitoring, exactly as a bank (HSBC I think) did not too long ago after they also had a breach? Yeah sure, to allow affected customers to check that they are not the subject of fraud. But really now... I do have to wonder just how many people would forget after one year that their free trial will carry over to a chargeable subscription if they do not cancel either their account or the direct debit.

I absolutely expect this to be legislated by Parliament as a matter of urgency:

In the event of a data breach (as applicable to the Data Protection Act) free credit monitoring is offered for a limited period, then such must be terminated in its entirety upon expiration of the agreed duration, except where explicitly requested to be continued by the customer; and therefore it would be unlawful to charge for said subscription at any time unless duly expressed by a separate contract.

Or something like that.

originally posted by: flammadraco
a reply to: royspeed

I'm with TalkTalk and this has peeved me off. I'll be leaving tomorrow and asking my bank to change my debit card

(

Not amused

They are definitely the dodgiest of the bigger companies. Lol, they are like the Del Boy of telecommunications. I think by now every criminal in the world has used my ID, lol. I just don't worry about it anymore. There is no escape. I don't know how in the future there can be any sure way to guarantee any security. Even the CIA gets hacked all the time, lol. If the CIA can't stay secure then the rest of us don't stand a chance.