London police arrest 15-year-old boy over TalkTalk hack
As TalkTalk looks to reassure customers and investors in the wake of last week's website hack, the Metropolitan Police has wasted no time tracking down the people behind it. Scotland Yard confirmed today that MPCCU officers, with help from Northern Ireland's Cyber Crime Centre and the National Crime Agency, arrested a 15-year-old boy in County Antrim, Northern Ireland on "suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences."
TalkTalk issued the following statement on its website: "TalkTalk can confirm that we have been informed by the Metropolitan Police of the arrest of a suspect in connection with the cyberattack on our website on 21st October 2015. We know this has been a worrying time for customers and we are grateful for the swift response and hard work of the police. We will continue to assist in the ongoing investigation."
On October 22nd, the company admitted that customer data including names, addresses, account information and credit card/bank data had been stolen following an attack on its website. TalkTalk quickly shut down the account sections of the site while it assessed the scope of the intrusion. It later confirmed that the amount of data stolen was less than first thought and that stored bank or credit card details were obfuscated so that they couldn't be used to empty customer accounts.
TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding also confirmed that the attacker(s) delivered a digital ransom note and asked that the company's four million customers to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity on their bank accounts. The Metropolitan Police says officers will now search the address in County Antrim while enquiries continue.
Update - October 27th 10:53am: The Metropolitan Police says the boy arrested in connection with the investigation into alleged data theft from the TalkTalk website has been bailed.
