Update: The teenage boy who was arrested has been freed on bail until a date in November. The release is pending further inquiries.
Original article:
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the TalkTalk cyber-attack late last week, which may have compromised the personal data of millions of customers.
The Metropolitan Police has announced that the teenager is being questioned following a search of a property in County Antrim in Northern Ireland on Monday afternoon.
The boy has been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act.
The huge attack, revealed on Friday, threatened the security of four million UK customers – TalkTalk hasn’t revealed how many of its users have been directly affected.
Related: TalkTalk Hack: How to protect yourself
In a statement, a spokesperson for the phone and broadband provider said: “TalkTalk can confirm that we’ve been informed by the Metropolitan Police of the arrest of a suspect in connection with the cyber-attack on our website on 21 October.
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On Friday, the company confirmed that the perpetrator of the “significant and sustained” attack had also requested a ransom in order to keep the the customer data secret.
TalkTalk, reeling from its second major attack in less than a year, has since claimed the hack was smaller than initially suspected.
The Met’s Cyber Crime Unit will go on questioning the boy, who hasn’t been charged, while police will continue to search the address in County Antrim.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
