The Latest TalkTalk Hack Could Be the Work of a 15-Year-Old Boy

Well, I surely did not see this coming. Recent reports are suggesting that the latest TalkTalk hack might have been the work of a 15-year-old boy from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, as a team formed of Scotland Yard’s Cyber Crime Unit and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have raided the boy’s home and arrested him on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences. This comes as a surprise for everyone because experts initially believed that a large country such as Russia or a group of terrorists was behind the attack, especially given the hack’s precision and success. The fact that a mere teenager could bring down a large company such as TalkTalk and steal some of its data is indeed worrying, especially since the attack was probably not a distributed denial of service but an SQL injection, which is relatively easy to protect against.

A spokesman has issued the following statement on Monday regarding the arrest:

“An arrest has been made in connection with the investigation into alleged data theft from the TalkTalk website. At approximately 4.20pm, officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), working with detectives from the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit, executed a search warrant at an address in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. At the address, a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences. He has been taken into custody at a County Antrim police station where he will later be interviewed.”

This was the third attack aimed at TalkTalk in the last eight months, and even though the company’s representatives have stated that there is currently no evidence that customers’ bank accounts have been compromised, they admitted that they don’t know how much customer data was actually encrypted. TalkTalk could receive a fine of £500,000, but that’s hardly more than a slap on the wrist for a company that has an annual revenue of £1.8 billion. TalkTalk has issued its own statement in which it encourages users to wait for more updates as the investigation unfolds.

“We know this has been a worrying time for customers and we are grateful for the swift response and hard work of the police. We will continue to assist with the ongoing investigation. In the meantime, we advise customers to visit [our website] for updates and information regarding this incident.”