A 15-year-old boy arrested in connection with a cyber attack on British Internet and telephone provider TalkTalk has been released on bail, the police said on Tuesday.
A 15-year-old boy arrested in connection with a cyber attack on British Internet and telephone provider TalkTalk has been released on bail, the police said on Tuesday.
The boy was detained in a raid on Monday in Northern Ireland and questioned over the attack, in which the personal data of millions of TalkTalk customers are feared to have been compromised.
“A 15-year-old youth, arrested in County Antrim on Monday as part of the investigation into the alleged theft of data from the firm TalkTalk, has been released on bail pending further enquiries,” said a Northern Ireland police spokesperson.
More than a tenth of the value of TalkTalk was wiped off the London Stock Exchange on Monday as traders reacted to the breach, the third cyber attack in eight months on the firm in which customers’ data have been stolen.
The company has said it is unsure how many of its four million customers in Britain were affected, but said that information including customer names, addresses and bank details could be at risk.
The company described the attack as “significant and sustained” and said that not all customers’ data were encrypted.
The police are investigating a ransom demand that was sent to TalkTalk purporting to be from the hacker, though the firm is unsure if the demand for money was genuine.
