Cyber Attack

I got this email from our local eCops today. It doesn't affect us but it does affect four million Talk Talk customers, some of whom are my friends and relatives, so I wanted to post it somewhere so I could then point them to the text. Feel free to do the same.

Talk Talk, the phone and broadband provider, has been the victim of a cyber attack on their website commonly referred to as DDoS – distributed denial of service attack. This has led to hackers accessing Talk Talks servers and stealing personal data, which could affect over four million customers. It is currently unknown exactly what data has been stolen but Talk Talk has stated that there is a chance that some of the following data could have been accessed:

• Name and addresses
• Dates of birth
• Email addresses
• Telephone numbers
• Talk Talk account information
• Credit card and banking details

Protect yourself

• Be wary of any emails claiming to be from Talk Talk asking for additional information such as passwords even if they are able to tell you specific account details – this could be a phishing email and sent to gain access to your account.
• If you have opened an email attachment please ensure you change the passwords for all your bank, email and online shopping accounts.
• As well as e-mails be wary of any telephone calls claiming to be from Talk Talk that ask for additional information or want to gain remote access to your computer. Again they may tell you specific details about your account. If you get such a call do not give any details, terminate the call, use a separate telephone line/mobile phone and call Talk Talk back on one of their known numbers to ascertain if the call is genuine.
• Monitor your bank accounts for any unusual activity that you believe may be fraudulent.