Fourth Teen Arrested in Relation to TalkTalk Hack
British police have made their fourth arrest, a 16-year-old boy, in connection with the ongoing investigation into the hack that plagued the largest UK telecom in the UK, TalkTalk, putting some 1.2 million customers at risk.
A 16-year-old boy from Norwich, located in eastern England, was arrested under suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offenses after his property had been searched, London police said in a statement published Tuesday.
Over the weekend on Saturday, a 20-year-old male from Straffordshire, central England, was the third arrest in connection to the TalkTalk hack, following the arrest of two teens, a 16-year-old from West London and a 15-year-old from Northern Ireland. All four have been released on bail thus far.
Just last month, TalkTalk, the largest telecom in the UK reported it had been hacked, potentially putting private information on more than it’s 4 million customers at risk.
Initially, TalkTalk had believed all of their 4 million customers were at risk immediately following the attack, however on Friday, the company revised the number, shrinking it to a still sizable 1.2 million customers. Hackers who breached TalkTalk gained access to a trove of personal information, some of it even left unencrypted. In the TalkTalk hack, attackers stole:
- Nearly 21,000 bank accounts
- Some 28,000 obscured Credit and Debit card numbers
- Less than 15,000 customers date of birth
- Names, email addresses and phone numbers of 1.2 million TalkTalk customers
What’s even more worrisome is that this isn’t the first time TalkTalk was hacked this year, nor the second, it’s been the third hack in just one year, and the year isn’t even over!
The fourth arrest comes following the third arrest and news that the second largest telecom in the UK Vodafone had also been hacked. Hackers targeting Vodafone were able to breach the company and steal information on 1,827 active customers.
The unnamed 16-year-old boy was bailed out of jail on Wednesday as reported by London police.
