Bitcoin Breaking News Brief

TalkTalk Hack Investigation Leads to Arrest of Teenager

Jp Buntinx · @http://twitter.com/jdebunt | Oct 27, 2015 | 06:23

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In light of the recent TalkTalk hack, a teenage boy hailing from Northern Ireland has been arrested. Official charges against this person include offences under the Computer Misuse Act., and the arrest comes after a joint operation between the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Also read: TalkTalk Hacked – Centralized Solutions and Unencrypted Customer Data

First Arrest in TalkTalk Investigation

Ever since news broke about the TalkTalk attack, affected customers have been worrying how much of their personal information has been breached. The UK ISP admitted not all of the stored data was encrypted, and even credit card information could have been obtained as a result of this breach.

According to a recent update from TalkTalk, internal investigations so far indicate all financial information was protected. However, bank account numbers of sort codes may have been accessed by the hacker[s], although this has not been confirmed yet. It would be all but impossible for to steal money using just these details, though, as additional user information needs to be provided to make this information useful.

With up to four million customers’ details at risk, the TalkTalk breach can still lead to large-scale theft or sales of personal information. Advertising companies are the least of worries when it comes to obtaining personal data, as identity theft is a real threat in events like these as well.

To obtain this additional information, criminals might attempt to reach out to TalkTalk customers to “verify” the data on record. The British ISP has clearly stated they will not be contacting customers directly to verify any information, and any attempts made to that regard should be reported to the police.  

In an official statement, TalkTalk representatives stated: 

“We can confirm that we do not store complete credit card details on the website; any credit card details that may have been accessed had a series of numbers hidden and therefore are not usable for financial transactions. We now expect the amount of financial information that may have been accessed to be materially lower than initially believed and would on its own not enable a criminal to take money from your account.”

The first arrest, in this case, will help put customers’ minds at ease, although the details are scarce for now. However, if an underage person is involved in the TalkTalk hack, the question becomes how weak the overall platform’s security was to begin with. Not to defame this young man by any means, but ISP’s should incorporate far better security measures than they do right now.

Blockchain Technology For Data Storage And Recordkeeping

A valuable lesson to learn from this debacle is how new form or technology should be embraced to keep customer records safe; Creating a central point of failure will only invite other hackers to try their luck regarding breaching a database, and stealing tons of confidential data.

Blockchain technology is perfectly tailored to solving these issues, as it removes any central point of failure. Furthermore, it offers a certain level of transparency, while also offering the option to keep individual customer data protected from prying eyes. Plus, this technology is open source, and is freely available to anyone in the world.

What are your thoughts on this arrest? Do you think there will be more arrests in the near future, Let us know in the comments below!

Source: BBC

Images courtesy of TalkTalk, Shutterstock