TalkTalk Hack Figures are less than what was originally reported
The TalkTalk hacks that happened late October may have died down, but recent details shows that the number of victims that were initially reported isn't as it seems.
According to BBC News, there are now a total of 156,959 customers that had their personal details accessed through the hack. 15,656 bank accounts were taken from those customers. A total of 28,000 credit and debit card numbers that got stolen were obscured and can no longer be used for financial transactions. According to the firm 4 percent of their customers got their vital data's hacked.
IT Pro writes that the almost 157,000 figure is less than the originally reported 1.2 million hacked accounts. The initial number shows that 10 percent of the 1.2 million had their personal information stolen. The company said, "Ongoing forensic analysis of the site confirms that the scale of the attack was much more limited than initially suspected, and we can confirm only four per cent of TalkTalk Customers have any sensitive personal data at risk. However, we continue to advise customers to be vigilant, and to take all precautions possible to protect themselves from scam phone calls and emails."
However, Daily Mail reported that a cyber criminal threatened to sell one million TalkTalk hacked personal details in the dark web. The accessed email addresses, sort codes, bank account numbers are being offered in illegal websites for thousands of pounds in bulk. The anonymous dealer is called "The Martian." The cyber criminal already sold about 4,000 vital details online. The hacker said more cyber attacks on giant corporations will be carried out in the future.
According to TalkTalk, it has contacted the affected customers. The company said that the financial information stolen won't lead to financial loss on its own. There are reports where hacked TalkTalk customers were contacted by bogus agents to scam them out of their money.