15-year old arrested on suspicion of TalkTalk hack

The seventh largest telecom firm in the UK, TalkTalk, is likely to come in for some tough questioning about its hack-prevention techniques after a 15-year-old boy in Northern Ireland, was arrested yesterday in connection with Wednesday's hack of the UK telecoms company.

The hack could have exposed the personal data, including bank details, of more than 4 million customers.

The company said it did not know how much of its customer information had been encrypted following the third cyber attack that hit the company in the last 12 months.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU) and the National Crime Agency, is investigating the attack and collaborated on the arrest of the boy. They opened a full-fledged investigation into the hack on Thursday, the BBC said.

''[The boy] has been taken into custody at a County Antrim police station where he will later be interviewed,'' London police said in a statement, adding that the boy had been arrested ''on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences.''

They further added they had been issued a search warrant for the address where he was discovered.

Representatives of TalkTalk initially said they were not sure how much customer data had been encrypted and therefore protected, and that they had received a ransom demand from a hacker. TalkTalk chief Dido Harding had since said that many of the credit-card details potentially accessed by hackers would have been partial and therefore not usable, according to the BBC.

According to Reuters, TalkTalk had hired BAE Systems to continue investigating the hack. The Guardian reported that the company is likely to face tough questioning about its hack-prevention techniques from UK lawmakers.

In a statement TalkTalk said it was ''making security enhancements.''

Police confirmed that the boy was detained on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act after a cyber attack on the computer systems of UK telecoms firm TalkTalk.

According to Scotland Yard, a search of the boy's home was being carried out by PSNI officers.

TalkTalk said it had received a ransom demand from an individual or group claiming responsibility for a cyber-attack on Wednesday that may have compromised the credit card and bank details of millions of customers. (See: Hackers send TalkTalk ransom demand).