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TalkTalk breach: what to do if you're a customer


If you are a TalkTalk customer, the company says to be aware of a heightened risk of financial crime and phishing attacks.



TalkTalk customers are being advised to keep an eye on their bank accounts for fraudulent activity, and to be particularly alert to the danger of 鈥減hishing鈥� emails, after a large-scale hack at the telecoms firm.

The company has not specified exactly what data was stolen from its servers, but says that the systems accessed contained information including:

鈥� Credit card and bank account details

鈥� Full names

鈥� Postal addresses

鈥� Dates of birth

鈥� Email addresses

鈥� Telephone numbers

鈥� TalkTalk account information

It adds that 鈥渘ot all of the data was encrypted鈥�.

Pay attention to your bank account

As a result, TalkTalk is warning customers to pay attention to their bank accounts for signs of fraudulent activity. The information stolen is in many cases sufficient for fraudulent payments to be made, and the company says it has contacted banks to warn them to be particularly cautious.

Check your credit

Users should also check their credit report, TalkTalk said, recommending they use the three main credit agencies (Call Credit, Experian and Equifax) to do so. The company says it is 鈥渓ooking to organise a year鈥檚 free credit monitoring for all of our customers and will be in touch on this in due course鈥�.

Watch out for phishing

As well as financial crime, the other major risk facing TalkTalk customers is 鈥減hishing鈥� attacks, designed to trick users into giving up further personal information such as passwords.

The stolen information will allow hackers to craft seemingly legitimate emails to users, by including previously secret information such as account numbers and postal addresses. Typically, those emails will contain links to a false version of TalkTalk鈥檚 website, with a login page which looks similar to the real one. Customers should be very careful with links they click on, and ensure that the web address is 鈥渢alktalk.co.uk鈥� before entering passwords.

Be cautious over the phone

Similarly, the phishing attacks may come through phone calls. The company emphasises that 鈥淭alkTalk will never call customers and ask you to provide bank details unless we have already had specific permission from you to do so.鈥�

It adds that it will also never 鈥渁sk for your bank details to process a refund 鈥� call you and ask you to download software on to your computer, unless you have previously contacted TalkTalk, discussed and agreed a call back for this to take place [or] send you emails asking you to provide your full password.鈥�

The attack is the third this year directed against TalkTalk customers, after a data breach in February and a further hack in August that also affected Carphone Warehouse. The information commissioner鈥檚 office has been notified about all three attacks, and has the power to fine up to 拢500,000 for serious breaches of the data protection act.