British police arrest third suspect in TalkTalk hack

British police have arrested a third suspect suspected of involvement in the hack of the telecom provider TalkTalk. It concerns a twenty-year-old man from Staffordshire, England, the London police said.

Reuters news agency reported this on the basis of a police statement. It is not known why the twenty-year-old man is a suspect in the TalkTalk case; police are investigating his home address to gather evidence of his involvement in the hack. Meanwhile, the man from Staffordshire is being held. British police declined to provide further details on the progress of the investigation.

It is the third suspect suspected of involvement in the hacking of British telecom provider TalkTalk. Earlier, a 15-year-old Northern Irishman was arrested and shortly afterwards a 16-year-old Englishman. Both have been released for the time being after paying bail. It is not known whether the three suspects know each other.

In the hack of which TalkTalk fell victim, the data of approximately 20,000 customers was stolen. This may include data such as telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and bank details. The perpetrators can be jailed. Meanwhile, TalkTalk has to answer for the security of its servers: if the company was negligent, the authorities can impose a fine of up to 700,000 euros. It is likely that some of the data was unencrypted.