By Lily Katz
(Bloomberg) — A 15-year-old boy in Northern Ireland has been arrested in connection with the attack on British Internet provider TalkTalk Telecom Plc, U.K. authorities said.
The teenager was taken into custody in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Monday on “suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offenses,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
TalkTalk, a provider of inexpensive broadband packages, was hit last week by a “significant and sustained” attack on its website. The company later received a ransom demand from attackers it didn’t identify, who wanted payment in exchange for relinquishing customer data. TalkTalk said Saturday that the attacker probably gleaned less financial information than initially thought, but announced Monday that some banking information, such as account numbers, may have been stolen.
The company confirmed that it doesn’t store complete credit-card details on its website. Any card details would have concealed some numbers “and therefore are not usable for financial transactions,” it said. Account passwords weren’t accessed, TalkTalk said.
The stock fell the most in more than five years in London on Monday after the company disclosed the cyberattack.
“We know this has been a worrying time for customers and we are grateful for the swift response and hard work of the police,” TalkTalk said, according to a statement from the company that was provided by the Metropolitan Police.
T-Mobile US Inc., Dixons Carphone Plc and Sony Corp. are among companies that also have sustained hacking attacks in the past year. Adultery website AshleyMadison.com was hit in July, and the perpetrators ended up releasing information they said included details of more than 36 million users including full names, e-mails and banking information.
