TalkTalk has fallen victim to what it calls a significant and sustained cyber attack during which potentially all 4 million of its customers’ personal details were stolen.
In a statement on Thursday, the U.K. telco admitted that a security bre ach occurred on Wednesday, during which names, addresses, date of birth, contact details including phone number and email address, as well as TalkTalk account information and bank information may have been compromised.
"We take any threat to the security of our customers’ data extremely seriously and we are taking all the necessary steps to understand what has happened here," said TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding. "As a precaution, we are contacting all our customers straight away with information, support and advice around yesterday’s attack."
It became apparent earlier this week that the U.K. telco was suffering from technical issues; its Website was unavailable and some users reported having trouble accessing the Internet.
TalkTalk advised customers to monitor their bank accounts over the next few months for any suspicious activity and to practice caution when contacted by anyone requesting personal data including passwords.
Customers are also advised to check their credit report.
"A criminal investigation was launched by the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit following a significant and sustained cyberattack on our website yesterday," TalkTalk said. "We are continuing to work with leading cyber crime specialists and the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened and the extent of any information accessed."
