Data breach hits major British phone company

A major data breach hit TalkTalk, the British phone and broadband giant, the company acknowledged.

Hackers broke into the firm’s computers and stole names and account numbers in an elaborate fraud scheme targeting customers’ bank accounts.

{mosads}The company, which serves 4 million customers, said a few thousand account numbers were compromised. It has encouraged customers to be on guard for calls from scammers purporting to be TalkTalk customer service representatives.

The scam illustrates the growing sophistication of malicious hackers bent on gaining access to bank accounts.

One victim in the latest breach said he received a call from a woman purporting to be part of TalkTalk’s fraud team who said his router had been hacked.

The woman knew the customer’s account details and connected him to a “senior technician,” who asked him to download software that would supposedly protect his laptop.

Part of the computer program prompted him to choose his bank from a number of options for the purpose of a refund “for the inconvenience of being hacked.” The scammer walked the customer through the entire process on the phone without suspicion.

Later, the customer realized that 2,815 pounds had been deducted from his bank account. The story was reported in The Guardian as an example of the kind of fraud facing compromised TalkTalk customers.

“We have become aware that some limited, non-sensitive information about some customers could have been illegally accessed in violation of our security procedures. We are aware of a small, but nonetheless significant, number of customers who have been directly targeted by these criminals and we have been supporting them directly. We want to reassure customers that no sensitive information like bank account details has been illegally accessed,” the company said in a statement to the paper.