An investigation by BBC Watchdog has found that over 4,500 customers had their data compromised in Talk Talk’s 2015 data breach but were not previously informed of the issue. Nearly 157,000 customers in total had personal information stolen, such as full names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and bank details, but it has now been revealed that Talk Talk failed to notify 4,545 customers that their data had been breached and was available online. Talk Talk have stated they have now contacted all affected customers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48351900
Since the stolen data will never be completely erased from the public domain, it is important to mitigate the effects of the breach instead. Victims should be on high alert for scams as they are likely to receive targeted phishing attempts using the data that has already been accessed to appear legitimate. These attacks can be particularly sophisticated and use social engineering to manipulate people into disclosing further information or inadvertently allowing unauthorised access to their accounts.