MPs To Probe TalkTalk Hack As Police Arrest Fourth Suspect

Police have arrested a fourth suspect in connection with the cyber-attack on the telecoms firm TalkTalk.

And in another development, a committee of MPs have revealed they will hold an inquiry into cyber security following the recent cyber-attack of TalkTalk’s website.

MPs Inquiry

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee revealed on Tuesday that the TalkTalk hack “gives rise to questions and concern over the ways companies store and secure information about their customers.”

It pointed out that TalkTalk had already been subject to two previous attacks this year.

“The recent events have highlighted serious issues relating both to existing cyber-security and the response to cyber-crime,” said Chair of the Committee, Jesse Norman MP. “This Committee is concerned with the attacks on TalkTalk specifically as a telecoms and internet service provider, but with the recent move of the Information Commissioner’s Office to DCMS, we will also be looking more widely at the security of personal information online.”

Specifically, the MPs will investigate the nature of the cyber-attacks on TalkTalk’s website and TalkTalk’s response to the latest incident.

They will also examine the robustness of measures that telecoms and ISPs are putting in place to secure their customers’ personal data and the level of security investment the firms are making.

And the MPs will examine the importance of encryption in protecting personal data, coupled with the adequacy of the supervisory, regulatory and enforcement regimes currently in place. The MPs will examine the redress mechanisms and compensatory measures for consumers when security breaches occur; and will also consider likely future trends in hacking, technology and security.

Fourth Arrest

Meanwhile police have arrested a fourth person in connection with the TalkTalk hack. This time the detectives from the Metropolitan police cybercrime unit and officers from the National Crime Agency arrested a 16-year-old boy in Norwich.

The youth was released on police bail until a date in March.

The police have been arresting youngsters across the UK. Earlier this week a 20-year-old man was arrested at an address in south Staffordshire. He is currently out on bail.

Police have also arrested a 15-year-old boy from Northern Ireland and a 16-year-old boy from Feltham, west London, in connection with the attack. The 15-year-old was bailed until November and the 16-year-old until a date that hasn’t been confirmed by police.

TalkTalk’s systems were breached on October 21 in what the firm described as “significant and sustained” cyberattack on its website.

The company said last week that the extent of the breach was “significantly less” than had been first thought.

About 21,000 unique bank account numbers and sort codes, 28,000 partial credit and debit card details, 15,000 customer birth dates and 1.2 million email addresses, names and telephone numbers were exposed, TalkTalk said in an advisory.

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