TalkTalk Warns Patrons of Phishing Emails

TalkTalk patrons are being urged to be vigilant about their online banking accounts for fraudulent transactions, and to be chiefly alert of phishing emails following a major hacking at the telecoms firm, published theguardian.com on October 23, 2015.

Lists of subscribers' names, email addresses, their addresses, and financial details are said to have been compromised by the cyber crooks in the ill-fated hacking incident.

The embezzled information will permit hackers to design seemingly valid emails to patrons, by including previously veiled details like account numbers and postal addresses. Usually, those phishing notifications will include links to a phony version of TalkTalk's site, comprising of a login webpage that looks identical to the original one. Subscribers must be extremely careful of the links clicked by them, and make sure that the online address is "talktalk.co.uk" prior to entering any passwords.

Unfortunately, TalkTalk's website and online network has been breached thrice in just 8 months, placing the personal information of an estimated 4 million subscribers at risk. The telecom giant can be punished with at least £500,000 for severe breaches of the laws governing the data protection act.

TalkTalk however, continues to maintain that it has not dishonored the Data Protection Act, actually a set of guidelines stating how businesses are permitted to use data. The Act directs that companies are required to safeguard data to avert disclosures but doesn't make explicit recommendations of the technology that should to be put into use.

UK's data protection regulator or Information Commissioner's Office said that it was coordinating with the Police to bring out the truth.

Security vendor FireEye deems the TalkTalk cyber attack as the brainchild of Islamic extremists based in Russia as it spotted an online message on Pastebin in which the militants were accredited for the attack, published by dailymail.co.uk on October 26, 2015.

Mike Smart, Security Strategist at security firm Proofpoint stressed that anyone hit by the TalkTalk episode must assume that their classified information is now openly accessible on the underground websites and cyber crooks would be looking ahead to exploit it for monetary gain, published dailymail.co.uk on October 26, 2015.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/29/2015