TalkTalk officially announced that it was cooperating with cybercrime specialists and the Metropolitan police to find out exactly what happened and the extent of damage done. The company was informing its customers immediately about the attack as a precaution. TalkTalk was criticized on Twitter over the announcement due to poor quality of the customer support service. One of customers claimed he had his computer attacked that day.
Less than a year ago, TalkTalk was investigating whether its customer database had been stolen after lots of its subscribers claimed they had received calls from Indian scammers having information about their names, addresses and account details. Since then, the scammers managed to trick thousands of pounds out of dozens of customers by pretending to be TalkTalk staff, while the broadband and phone provider has refused to accept any liability in that case.
TalkTalk revealed that a 3rd-party contractor with legitimate access to its customer base appeared to be involved in the data breach. The company launched a legal action against the supplier, allegedly located in India, and contacted customers to warn them about the criminal activity. It is known that the Information Commissioner’s Office was still investigating the leak.
