TalkTalk hack: Dido Harding and other execs could face grilling from MPs
Executives at telecoms giant TalkTalk could face a grilling from MPs later this month as part of an influential parliamentary committee's investigation into the company's latest data breach.
MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee announced this morning that they are launching an inquiry into the "circumstances surrounding" the recent cyber-attack on Talk Talk's website.
The committee said that the attack, which was initially feared to have compromised the personal details of over 4m customers, "gives rise to questions and concern over the ways companies store and secure information about their customers"
Noting that TalkTalk had already separately been subject to two previous attacks this year, the committee said it would be investigating TalkTalk's response to the latest hack, as well as the "robustness of measures that telecoms and internet service providers are putting in place to maintain the security of their customers’ personal data and the level of investment being made to ensure their systems remain secure and anticipate future threats".
Jesse Norman, a Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said: “The recent events have highlighted serious issues relating both to existing cyber-security and the response to cyber-crime. This committee is concerned with the attacks on TalkTalk specifically as a telecoms and internet service provider, but with the recent move of the Information Commissioner’s Office to DCMS, we will also be looking more widely at the security of personal information online.”
Police made a fourth arrest in connection with the ongoing criminal investigation into the TalkTalk hack last night, taking into custody a 16-year old boy in Norwich.
A 15-year-old boy from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, a 16-year-old boy in Feltham and a 20-year-old man in Staffordshire have all also been arrested – and later released under bail – in connection to the case.