TalkTalk accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity

Telecoms giant TalkTalk have been accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity after a hacker contacted Sky news and reported website security flaws that had been left unfixed for years.

The news comes as little surprise to us as we continue to represent victims for previous TalkTalk cyber-hacks that were, in our view, entirely preventable.

According to the media reports from the end of March, the hacker found a simple scripting error that allowed him to take control of a TalkTalk.co.uk URL, and use it to trick customers that they were visiting a genuine TalkTalk website.

TalkTalk’s history of substandard cybersecurity

The unfixed flaw could reportedly be an easy one to exploit with phishing scams, which are a continual headache for all. Given TalkTalk’s obvious history of what appears to be substandard cybersecurity, the news that a hacker found yet another simple unfixed flaw, that was well-known for years, is concerning.

TalkTalk has already been fined £400,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for the preventable 2015 breach, as well as an additional £100,000 when the data of 21,000 customers was exposed to rogue staff at a foreign call centre.

Despite these hefty fines, it seems TalkTalk simply hasn’t learned its lesson. Talktalk cybersecurity vulnerabilities have been allowed to remain in their systems, and as one of the more popular choices as a telecoms and internet provider, they’re playing with fire with a lot of people’s data.

Ignoring cybersecurity will cost businesses

Ignoring cybersecurity will cost businesses; not just in fines from regulators and customers leaving as a result of the breaches, but with the legal action as well. It’s totally unfair and unacceptable for an organisation to be so flagrant with cybersecurity responsibilities.

Data breach victims whose data is hacked because of known vulnerabilities, weak systems and substandard security are entitled to claim for compensation, and any organisation responsible for such an incident should be fairly punished.

Current compensation cases cases we are involved in such as the TalkTalk breach and the Equifax data breach are prime examples of a systematic failure to take action and ensure systems are not vulnerable to attack.

We will step in and pursue cases for Claimants where such breaches occur.

You can heal a broken arm or get back to normal after many muscular injuries; but once your personal and sensitive data is hacked or leaked, it’s out there, practically, forever.

Compensation action against TalkTalk

If you were affected by the previous TalkTalk breaches, we may be able to help you claim data breach compensation on a No Win, No Fee basis. Please don’t hesitate to contact our team for specialist help and advice on making a data protection claim today.

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