TalkTalk Data Breach (2015)

TalkTalk has revealed the impact of last year's data breach on its user base, confirming that it has lost 100,000 customers since its systems were hit. Some 95,000 of those users were a direct result of the hack, which is estimated to have cost the operator around 60 million. Breaking that sum down, IT support and customer response line costs amounted to between 40 million and 45 million, while trading losses accounted for the rest. But TalkTalk's offer of a free upgrade to affected customers appears to have gone down well, with 489,000 accepting this method of apology. No doubt this convinced some users to remain with TalkTalk and boosted customer confidence among those who stayed put. That wasn't the only positive the company can draw from a difficult quarter, as revenues are up by 1.8% and its share price has also increased. Metropolitan Police arrested a fourth suspect in connection with the TalkTalk data breach on Tuesday (November 3), apprehending a 16-year-old male in Norwich. Prior to this latest development, men from Northern Ireland, London and Staffordshire were arrested in relation to the crime. While TalkTalk initially said that as many as 4 million customers could have been affected by a "significant and sustained cyber-attack", the company has since clarified that fewer than 1.2 million customer email addresses, names and phone numbers had actually been successfully breached. On top of that, fewer than 28,000 obscured credit and debit card details and under 21,000 bank account numbers and sort codes were accessed, and TalkTalk maintains that the risk of fraud is minimal due to its encryption. TalkTalk is expected to give evidence to the Committee to aid its investigation.