TalkTalk website hit by cyber-attack

pappa_golf

250,000 + 1 now left TT , http://blogs.channel4.com/geoff-white-on-technology/arrests-talktalk-subcontractor-personal-data-breaches/1926

forgotmyname

This is the problem when firms farm out to call centres where you need to give people your life story. If the call centre is in a country where wages are generally low and one family member may have to support the entire family it must be so tempting to sell that data on.

Same reason if i get a bank problem i will goto the branch where i opened the account. They once tole me its an online only account. I queried how that can be when i opened the account in that branch before the internet was popular and way before internet banking was available.

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DavidP24

pappa_golf wrote: »

250,000 + 1 now left TT , http://blogs.channel4.com/geoff-white-on-technology/arrests-talktalk-subcontractor-personal-data-breaches/1926

Wow that company looks like the proverbial "licenced bandit in a taxi"

Data is not allowed to be stored outside EU without permission, but then TalkTalk offer no meaningful means for a user to opt out, they do not even inform customers.

I hope the ICO fines them the £500k fine for EACH breach of Data Protection and privacy and electronic communications regulations.

How else will they learn to take their obligations seriously, even £500k is small potatoes for them

DavidP24

forgotmyname wrote: »

This is the problem when firms farm out to call centres where you need to give people your life story. If the call centre is in a country where wages are generally low and one family member may have to support the entire family it must be so tempting to sell that data on.

Same reason if i get a bank problem i will goto the branch where i opened the account. They once tole me its an online only account. I queried how that can be when i opened the account in that branch before the internet was popular and way before internet banking was available.

.

For TalkTalk I find the Filipino call centre keep you talking, over an hour and they kept calling me back when I said I have to go because you are just repeating a script to me. They tend to have high pitch voices and speak American English but do not actually understand the words they are saying.

I found the ones in India rude and disrespectful commission chasing scumbags, I thought it was a bad rep and called back 3 times and got similar responses.

I found the South African call centre the best but I think they pulled out of there now or at least have changed the workflow so they no longer take sales calls.

You are right about wages, I worked for a company that outsourced some software development and we found it selling for $5 on Tradebit for source code. Luckily, it was just a demo of a new version but what got us was they used our trademark (Idiots).

Years ago when one of the largest banks move a call centre to India they did not implement access control to data and it was sheer luck that a £2m swindle was avoided.

Last week I heard on BBC Radio that Barclays had a customer who did not receive a payment because a hacker had told his customer to pay into a different account at the same branch, it was in their name but had a different sort code and account number. Barclays said checks had been done but pointed out that they are only obliged to verify the sort code and account number, not the company name or address. The paying bank (Metro Bank) had no way to recover money. What interested me was that there was no determination of who got hacked, technically the bill was not paid so the Metrobank customer still owed the money.

The banks are scared to death we will realise how weak their security is, SSL3 is no longer secure and rather than fix it they want to pass the buck to customers.

Getting back to Indian call centres, one of the issues is the ability to prosecute individuals or catching the hackers they sold to. Some years ago Paypal suspended all accounts in India because of issues verifying ID until they could find a way.

I wonder how many of these subcontracted staff actually temp in more than one company or even whether the companies themselves do not have adequate access control. Any IT admin who has access to back end database can export data very quickly.

TalkTalk has the responsibilty to take adequate steps to vett staff and to put in adequate security to protect the website. That is why I say they "allowed" themselves to be hacked. Big companies can implements services that detect and prevent hackers.

Currenly if you access the site from outside the UK they give a static page with phone numbers, referning them to http://myaccountholding.talktalk.co.uk and http://salesholding.talktalk.co.uk/

Of course that would not prevent the hackers using a UK VPN but mostly they have the risk of UK hacked computers doing a DDOS attack and that is why they need proper protection. They can also get insurance for the liability to customers.

prosaver

dont know if youve all covered this

Call centre workers working for recently cyber-hacked company TalkTalk in India have been arrested on suspicion of stealing customer data.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/talktalk-call-centre-workers-arrested-in-india-in-cyber-hacking-probe-a6838381.html

Im taking my money out of the bank I direct debit with talk talk.. not risking it

2010

prosaver wrote: »

dont know if youve all covered this

Im taking my money out of the bank I direct debit with talk talk.. not risking it

The only way they can get money out of your account is if you give them the info when they ring you up and try to con you.

pappa_golf

"can you give me your password please and your email address"


yup sure , have my termination notice at the same time!

2010

pappa_golf wrote: »

"can you give me your password please and your email address"


yup sure , have my termination notice at the same time!

There`s plenty of threads and info about how the scammers operate to con people out of their details.
The most common being they are from TT and your pc has a virus.

pollypenny

IT cannot a coincidence that these scam phones seem to happen when you've had a problem anyway.

Safari kept dropping for me on Monday. I wondered if it was my router, put it off for a while, before doing a speed check. Lo and behold, a couple of hours later a call about my router.

I challenged the caller and he turned nasty, telling me that TT would be terminating my contract.

I reported the call and, no surprise, there had been no official call from them.

Similar scam calls in the Spring, just after needing to contact TT anyway.

2010

pollypenny wrote: »

I challenged the caller and he turned nasty, telling me that TT would be terminating my contract.

I reported the call and, no surprise, there had been no official call from them.

I have never, ever had a call from TT (the real one) since I jioned them eight years ago.