Police arrest 15-year-old Northern Irishman for hacking TalkTalk

Northern Ireland police have arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of hacking into telecom provider TalkTalk. The hack took place last week. Personal information including telephone numbers, email addresses and bank details may have been stolen.

Police have searched the home of the 15-year-old Northern Irishman for evidence. No further details have been released about the arrest, writes The Guardian. The suspect may be the same person who contacted TalkTalk on Friday, claimed responsibility for the hack and demanded a sum of money from the telecom provider.

To keep customers and interested parties informed, TalkTalk is playing open hand with a webpage dedicated to the incident. It’s not the first time the company’s data and its customers have been compromised. At the end of 2014, the data was already on the street due to a leak.

Meanwhile, TalkTalk management has been called upon to explain to the British Parliament how the attack could have taken place. Not all data on the company’s servers was encrypted. The British Information Commissioner’s Office can also fine the television and internet provider up to €700,000 if the security of the servers is found to be inadequate. It’s not yet clear how many of TalkTalk’s four million UK customers were affected by the hack, or exactly what data was stolen.