British police launch investigation into ransom demand received by telecoms

The BBC reported that Wednesday’s attack is the third such crime to affect TalkTalk in the past 12 months.

The data breach was announced on Thursday by TalkTalk CEO, Dido Harding.

But British business leaders on Saturday warned about the danger of cyber crime and urged police to make the issue an urgent priority, saying firms faced continual security breaches.

The hack, which happened on Wednesday morning, may have seen the sensitive personal data of millions of customers stolen.

United Kingdom phone and broadband provider TalkTalk may have once again left its customers exposed to hackers. A Russian Islamist group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack and has posted private information online which is similar to Talktalk’s customers information, however, it has not been verified so far.

“Unfortunately TalkTalk is by no means an isolated incident”, the company said, citing other targets like banks, retailers, and the USA government.

TalkTalk has roughly four million customers and according to a spokeswoman speaking with The Wall Street Journal, the “worst-case scenario” is that personal information on every single one of its customers is now out in the open.

“We can confirm we were contacted by someone claiming to be responsible and seeking payment”, a company spokesperson said.

Speaking earlier, Jayne Snellgrove, detective superintendent of the Cyber Crime Unit, said: “We are aware of speculation regarding alleged perpetrators; this investigation remains at an early stage; a full assessment of the alleged data theft is ongoing”.

TalkTalk also contacted major banks in its service area, which are monitoring the accounts of the company’s customers for suspicious activity.

A TalkTalk spokesman said: “We are also working hard to get our services back up securely so they are available for customers to use safely and securely as soon as possible”. Attackers had infiltrated TalkTalk’s systems and obtained names, addresses, phone numbers, and TalkTalk account numbers – this information was sold and then used by fraudsters to call customers and obtain their bank details.