Hack Hits 4 Million Customers of UK Telecom TalkTalk

It is believed the hackers waged a DDoS - a distributed denial of service attack - where a website is deluged with traffic so intense that it cannot operate. “What is not clear is why this would result in the loss of data rather than just the site going down,” BBC reports. It is possible that the DDoS was a diversion to distract the company’s IT team while the criminals went about penetrating systems.

A hacker claiming responsibility for the attack sent an email to the boss of the phone and high-speed Internet provider demanding a ransom.

But it is unclear whether the email was credible.

The British government currently believes the incident is a financial crime, rather than anything related to national security.

Former customers of Talk Talk may also be affected by the computer hack. It is not known whether the information seized by the hackers was encrypted. It will take 36 to 48 hours to email customers.

The breach might have compromised names and addresses, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, banking details, and TalkTalk account information.

Cybersecurity consultant and former Scotland Yard detective Adrian Culley said that a Russian Islamist group posted a message online saying it carried out the attack.

He said hackers claiming to be a cyber-jihadi group had published data which appeared to be TalkTalk customers' private information - although he stressed the group’s claim has yet to be verified or investigated.