Second teen arrested in mammoth TalkTalk hack

Authorities have arrested a second teen in Northern Ireland in connection with the hack on British broadband provider TalkTalk, according to multiple reports.

{mosads}The 16-year-old was caught just days after police arrested a 15-year-old as a suspect in the cyberattack, which TalkTalk said exposed banking details and personal information on its 4 million customers.

The data breach, revealed last week, is considered one of the largest in U.K. history.

Both boys tied to the intrusion were arrested on suspicions of offenses under the Computer Misuse Act. Each has been released on bail.

It’s unclear what the goals of the TalkTalk hackers were. The company initially said the digital thieves had demanded a ransom for the stolen customer data. But security firms later reported finding that same pilfered financial data for sale on the dark Web.

TalkTalk tried to assure its customers over the weekend that the breach was not as bad as initially feared, insisting that the stolen financial data was incomplete, lowering the chances it could lead to any fraud.

The company could still face a fine of up to £500,000 — about $770,000 — if British officials determine TalkTalk did not adequately protect itself against hackers.

TalkTalk Chief Executive Dido Harding has already acknowledged “the awful truth is I don’t know” whether all the data was encrypted.

“With the benefit of hindsight, were we doing enough?” Harding said. “Well, you’ve got to say that we weren’t and obviously we will be looking back and reviewing that extremely seriously.”