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UK Police Make Third Arrest Over TalkTalk Cyber Attack (reuters.com)

Posted by timothy on from the upping-the-average-age dept.

An anonymous reader writes: British police have made a third arrest in connection with a cyber attack this month on telecoms company TalkTalk, in which the company said bank details of more than 20,000 customers were hacked. We mentioned the first of the three arrests on Monday; a second arrest took place Thursday, as related by Ars Technica, of a 16-year-old from west London. The latest arrest is of a 20-year-old from Staffordshire.

61 comments

  1. the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by turkeydance · · Score: 0

    with anything: guns, knives, or internet access.

    1. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guns and nomkitchen knives only have a single purpose which is to kill.

    2. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Banning knives is the best thing England has ever done for safety.

    3. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guns have only purpose which is to murder so it is good that they banned them here.

    4. Re:the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The homicide rate per 100k in the US is 3.55, but only 0.05 in the UK so the fact is that we can't trust the people with guns. Can't trust the people with guns.

    5. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which proves people can't be trusted with knives or guns.

    6. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm an electrician that works on control systems, mostly running Linux which is why I'm here, and I carry a knife for work. So, you're saying I can't be trusted?

    7. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a load of crap. If you were an electrician, you'd know how to spell it.

    8. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't have a murder weapon then u can't commit murder. That is just logical.

    9. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't need a knife as the laws here have proven.

    10. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't need a knife as the laws here have proven.

      Wrong, it's a fact that everyone needs a knife and should have one at all times.
      What sort of freak doesn't have a pocket knife?

    11. Re:the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why your government can abuse the shit out of you and they do so like no other (save communist states): You present no threat now and have become subservient slaves and cattle. It's funny. You tried that all over the world as a people with your sailing and trading fleets. Now your own rulers are using it on YOU. Ironic.

    12. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Incorrect. You can use them to get food or as protection from others with guns. Both are legit scenarios. You also overlook that someone with a gun's less likely to fuck with another someone who has one too. Don't speak in absolutes that were used to brainwash you as a people into being subservient obedient living in fear slaves. Ironic. The very thing your people tried with their sailing and trading fleets are being done to YOU by your own rulers.

    13. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Guns themselves don't kill people. Guns don't possess motives to do so in and of themselves. People do. Unless a gun drops and fires say, by accident? Guns do not kill. Again: People do pulling the trigger aiming at another person. Get your shit straight. Learn to think critically instead of being a brainwashed little slave that's unable to think for themselves.

    14. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you don't have a murder weapon then u can't commit murder. That is just logical.

      So you re saying the peole of the UK need their hands cut-off too? I am quite certain at least a few murders in Merry Olde England were committed with nothing more than the murderer's hands.

    15. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, not people: limeys. That mob of drunkards and hooligans should be locked up in their island and never allowed anywhere near civilized people.

    16. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rather like, who gives a fuck: england gone? No loss.

    17. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What sort of freak doesn't have a pocket knife?

      Normal people.

    18. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by easyTree · · Score: 1

      Lol. I'm willing to be locked up if the same happens to the USAnians too. We'll take one for the (world) team.

      --
      Requiem for the American Dream
    19. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh yeah? Ready, normal people?

    20. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not an USian so I don't care if both of you hooligans lock yourself up in some desert island and kill each other. I will gladly defecate on your bloated carcasses.

    21. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which proves people can't be trusted with knives or guns.

      Which proves people can't be trusted. FTFY

    22. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Securification process is complete - Arnim Zola

    23. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by hucker75 · · Score: 1

      Funny, I've got plenty. I use them to cut up food. Most of them could allow me to kill you if I wanted to.

    24. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course the USA doesn't spy on its inhabitants. Get real.

    25. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well that's nice, dear.

      Tea?

    26. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do we know that that is not what all little brain washed citizens say?

    27. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by nukenerd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Outlawing guns only keeps them from lawful people. Criminals still get them anyway.

      Guns are extremely rarely used in crime in the UK. Criminals know that if they appear anywhere with a gun, all the police over a very wide radius will descend on them like a ton of bricks; it isn't worth it.

      I would have no idea how to get a gun if I decided to commit a crime with one, and most criminals, who are petty criminals anyway, would have no idea either. Even if such a small criminal, a house burglar say, happened to know a serious criminal gang who could possible provide him with one, they would be extremely unlikely to provide it to him at any price, not wanting to be linked to him. Their attitude would be "WTF do you need a gun for, just to burgle a house?". Because if the police found anyone with a gun, they would get the provider's name out of him.

    28. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      You're no longer "great Britain"

      It's "Great Britain" and you're right, because as a whole, it's the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", commonly known as the "United Kingdom" or "Britain".

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    29. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Commonly known throughout the rest of the world as "the sad place with the hooligans and the drunkards".

    30. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No thanks. I just pissed on it. It probably improved the taste.

    31. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by KGIII · · Score: 1

      No, I do my killing with a firearm. I do my skinning with a knife. I also don't do my butchering in the kitchen. In fact, like firearms, knives are fine tools that can be misused. I carry a Victorinox. It's never killed anything. It has opened packages, cut cable, cut rope, carved wood, gutted fishies, and many more things. It has never killed anything.

      I realize you're trolling or stupid but, well, somebody has to respond. I have a whole bunch of firearms that have never, not even when I wasn't looking, gone out and killed something. I have quite a few that will probably end up in prison for wanton paper slaughter, however. If you're paper, especially if you've a few circles on you, then you're quite likely in serious danger around those. If you're paper then you should probably hide or consider enacting laws for your own protection. They'll straight up murder the fuck right out of you and your family. They don't like paper, one bit.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    32. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by easyTree · · Score: 1

      Eek; touched a nerve :#

      --
      Requiem for the American Dream
    33. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Commonly known throughout the rest of the world as "the sad place with the hooligans and the drunkards".

      Sounds like you're confusing the USA with the UK.

    34. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      You can use them to get food or as protection from others with guns.

      Hunting is a separate issue, and is associated with rich twats slaughtering wildlife for fun here in the UK, rather than someone killing their dinner.

      And you only need protection from others with guns in places where (most) others have guns.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    35. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If you don't have a murder weapon then u can't commit murder. That is just logical.

      So you re saying the peole of the UK need their hands cut-off too? I am quite certain at least a few murders in Merry Olde England were committed with nothing more than the murderer's hands.

      Very few people are capable of murdering someone with their bare hands.

      In increasing order of ease of killing, you have blunt instruments, knives, swords and guns. It is far easier to kill someone with a gun, not least because you can do it at a distance. And no, you can't walk around in public with a loaded crossbow in England either.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    36. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your problem's ignorance. Your blessing's you're no criminal. Criminals CAN get guns. Wake up. You only disarmed your populace as I said earlier http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... making you vulnerable. You don't seem to understand how cretin minds work. They see you're weaker, they attack, often ganging up on you. That type interprets mercy and logic as weakness. They only understand the fist (or knife or gun etc.) Question - Ever been jumped that way (and I don't mean in elementary school but in the street)? I have. I wager not. You downmodded my post? You're obviously what we call a "white bread suburban punk" with NO clue on how the streets really work. I pity you, and yet I also envy you (ignorance is bliss until you get robbed at gunpoint though). One day your personal ignorance may kill you. One day your nation might be at the mercy of armies and you won't be able to defend yourselves.

    37. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Play it again since you're off topic: Your nation's made itself a prime target for hostile invasion. You have a completely unarmed populace. Think your enemies don't think thus? Think again or rather try to think. It's obvious your mind has been so brainwashed by the hype fed you and that you cannot think for yourself, let alone critically examining all possibles, that you're perfect for the spying and enslavement you limeys endure now. You did it to yourselves. You think you've evened the playing field? You've weakened yourselves and made yourself easy to cow for the real powers in your nation. You get outta line, do you really think those 'rulers' won't come out with guns to take you out? Guess again. That is what you've done by taking away your ability to defend yourselves. How ironic. The nation of "iron men and wooden ships" reduced to subservient cattle and only a shadow of your formers selves. You're no longer "great Britain" partially because of this and being the leech of the world "colonizing" was your undoing. You may not like it, but it's what the entire planet thinks of you. You're long past being "iron men in wooden ships" and more like tinfoil men in balsa wood toy boats. You did this to yourselves.

    38. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they don't in the UK then they have no balls and emasculated themselves, doing it to themselves. Self-castration. They don't deserve their land since they don't possess what it takes to "hold your mud" which means dukes/knives/guns equal to or hopefully better than the opponent taking away what it takes to hold it, in weaponry for the entire populace. This achieves "peace thru superior firepower" and mutual respect which is all mindless dolts respect or soldiers from invading nations too. Sure, you have a point. "Be quiet go with the flow" but before you know it, it's too late and invading armies crush you without firing a shot. You have no shots to fire back taking away folks guns. Trust me: That's what potentially invading nations would think and they don't just think then. They prepare for attack and then just do it.Yes, folks like Ghandi, Buddha, and Christ were right in "turn the other cheek" philosophies but rulers and conquerors view the right thing to do as weakness as they break that rule every single day and they would break you or I too in a heartbeat. It's how their twisted sick minds work and it forces it on all of us. Shit flows downhill.

    39. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To quote "V" for Vendetta: "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of the people" Yours isn't. They don't have to be. They took your guns and you dumbshit limeys let them. What happened to you? I think you've lost your minds. You not only get taxed to high hell but you let them shit all over you, spy on you, and for what? Fear of defending yourselves? Do you really honestly think people in power give a flying FUCK about you or that they'd even protect you? They don't and won't. They'll protect themselves above all else. It's called "continuity of government" and THAT is their main priority. You're just sheep and cattle to them. Wake up, face fact, before they put your asses to sleep forever or some invading nation that knows you're weak does.

    40. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha: Think criminals can't get guns? They will and do. They use them too. Especially vs. ones they know has none. They aren't like normal people and it's why they're criminal. They look at normal peaceful working folks as chumps and suckers. Criminals in the USA? US Cops are outgunned by them since they have automatic machine guns vs. popguns. If it can happen here it will happen there too in the UK. You people have done yourselves a gigantic disservice making yourselves not only vulnerable to your high taxes, spying, and a gov't that shits all over you but you did this to yourselves. They don't fear you and quoting V again: "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of the people" and yours? They don't have to fear you. You showed them you have no balls and no guns. For what? Security? LOL! Other nations look at you as weak minus an armed populace. Think they don't? Think again or try to think past the "I'm safe. 'Good government' bullshit will protect me" and the truth is you're just cattle and weaklings to them. Especially now. You're not "Great Britain" anymore and you don't deserve to be. That's what other nations think and you're a prime target easy meat now with no armed populace.

    41. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting this again since the GCHQ's minus modding it: Outlawing guns only keeps them from lawful people. Criminals still get them anyway. Witness automatic weapons in the US. They're illegal too. Crooks still have them and can outgun police many times.

    42. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      England is a conquered country, run by the invaders. It has been since 1066 AD. All of the society and political systems are built on that.

      England is now a "Gun Free Zone", and all of the shootings in the news have been in gun free zones!
      What we need to outlaw are Gun Free Zones.

    43. Re: the citizens of the UK can't be trusted by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Your nation's made itself a prime target for hostile invasion. You have a completely unarmed populace.

      So what you're saying is, my firearm's license doesn't exist and the weapons I have at home don't exist?

      Think your enemies don't think thus?

      The only 'enemies' I am particularly concerned about are certain nationalists that would have us secede from the union through the use of certain methods that guns can't help with.

      You get outta line, do you really think those 'rulers' won't come out with guns to take you out?

      Considering how soft touch enforcement is around here when it comes to using projectile weapons, I'm not really seeing a vicious problem you're implying. The only people I really see out of line in the UK tend to be murderers and such (arrested without needing to carry a projectile weapon too), not a guy driving away in a car.

      You're long past being "iron men in wooden ships" and more like tinfoil men in balsa wood toy boats.

      Wow, you have some wild imagination as to what people think. Most people (sadly) in the UK are thinking about what's in HEAT or the dailymail has to say for gossip, I doubt anyone is thinking this rubbish you're coming up with.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  2. It's My Life by wbr1 · · Score: 1

    Belongs here https://youtu.be/5ixRWvrkUHo

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  3. Hmmmm by khasim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And that is why I find it difficult to believe all the claims of "Chinese hackers" who are "attacking" sites.

    Teenagers can crack a telecom. It isn't because the kids are that good. It's because so many organizations are that bad at basic security.

    1. Re:Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course. A regular robbery involves:

      Person A: give me this.
      Person B: no.
      Person A: do it or I'll hurt you.
      Person B: here it is.

      An electronic "robbery" involves:

      Computer A: give me this.
      Computer B: here it is.

      Computer crimes are treated like regular crimes, when the problem with most (but not all) computer crimes is that the computer has been CONFIGURED to simply deliver what it is asked, and someone asks for it! It matters not that the INTENTION was not to configure the computer in that way - that's the way things have ended up.

      Is the solution to decriminalise such things, then? I'm not sure how that would make things any better. But the LIABILITY must rest more with the so-called victim - who is not, in fact, a victim, but a willing participant. TalkTalk computers delivered private data to random third parties. TalkTalk should be liable individually for costs to each individual who has had their data taken.=

      Will this ruin TalkTalk? I hope so!

    2. Re: Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most big places (chain convience stores, outlets, resteraunts, big box stores) are all instructed to immediately comply with a robber.
      No threats needed to rob most places.
      The illegal part is the robbery, not just the threats. Those are illegal on their own.
      In other words your distinction means nothing in the real world or online.

    3. Re:Hmmmm by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Maybe... We don't know what these people's involvement was. They could just be useful idiots from 8chan co-opted into the DDOS attack. There are tools like LOIC that people post to 8chan so others can join a DDOS attack in a single click. The software is pre-configured with the target, but of course half the time when they think they are hammering some evil feminist they are actually helping someone blackmail a commercial site.

      They could also just be people whose computers were infected with a remote access tool, that was then used to do the hack. They could be people running Tor exit nodes. They could be people will poor wifi security. The police have fallen for that one more than once.

      But yeah, in any case it's evidence that TalkTalk had exceptionally shitty security. SQL injection was old hat a decade ago.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Hmmmm by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      I suggest that TalkTalk's security was so bad that several people independently performed attacks against it via SQL injections. It's like a jewellery store finding the store empty in the morning, after not closing the door over night. There are probably multiple independent people who took away as much as they could carry.

    5. Re:Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's right blame the victim. If I take a sledgehammer and bust your front door down and then proceed to steal your property and kill your family should we blame the door manufacturer? Or maybe the sledge hammer manufacturer? Or blame you for not purchasing a front door capable of withstanding the sledge hammer attack? Or do you let the actual perpetrator off the hook by claiming he was only raising awareness of a security weakness? Grow a fucking brain. There is not a single OS or application that is 100% secure. What will happen is that the assholes who hack computer systems are giving the government all the excuse it needs to start implementing harsher penalties and adding new regulations and oversight measures. Not to mention the increasing number of insurance companies poised to make a killing by offering insurance policies for data breaches. And the cost of those insurance policies will be paid for by passing on the expense to their customers.

    6. Re:Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just it, the doors aren't locked, and every item in the house has a post-it note that says "Take me"

    7. Re:Hmmmm by hucker75 · · Score: 1

      Talktalk are criminals themselves. They lie about their special offers. I used them for 1 week then cancelled.

  4. Good points, some I agree with & a tool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're correct largely about them not giving a shit about security. It's about profits, short-term ones, & greed. Spend as little as possible, don't maintain an IT staff fulltime (which is like your body operating minus an immune system imo), you get what you get. Gosh - let's "contract everything" out & "SAVE MONEY" Yea, well... contractors are a business too. Think they do "the best possible job" they can (especially for website development & the security of endpoint nodes in hardware + OS in them, plus db security? Guess again - for themselves, they do. The customers? Sorry - just profit centers, & minus people that know what they're doing overseeing it in said workplace, they know they can get away with it - face facts: It's not theirs, they don't give a fuck).

    Right again, these kids aren't that good. They're MOSTLY script kiddies, but they're learning. Think we have "good crackers" out there now? Just wait... I say this since we all "stand on the shoulders of giants" & programmatic practices+ tools used for it keep getting better and better (well, most do - some of the "new hotness" is old & busted outta the gate imo & experience (over 23++ yrs. roughly professionally, now pretty much retired running my own businesses). It'll be worse, as cheaper offshoring keeps taking job possibilities way, thus yanking their futures from them & even possibly shattering their dreams due to 'broken promises' (not really that, they threw their dice & cast their lot taking risks on futures is all - none of which are guaranteed). Many will be ALMOST FORCED to turn to "the darkside" in order to live up to loans they took out...

    Sometimes, I think I'm in the wrong game (coding for security and for "the general absolute good of all" -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... ) - & believe me:

    The THOUGHT pattern I expressed above about "the darkside"? Yes, of it has crossed my mind even... WHY?

    Heck - I see hacker/cracker types making MILLIONS A WEEK (many millions) via botnets... pretty powerful incentive, but what saves me is two things:

    1.) Money is not my God - it's merely a necessity to make life more secure. I've seen enough of a glimpse into the world of BIG money & bigger fleas come on a different dog was my ultimate conclusion... money can cause problems too.

    &

    2.) I know criminality eventually ends you up dead or on the run for life... that, is not life. I've seen others in my time who tried it. Looks good up front till they're in a casket or jailed for life (or huge terms etc.).

    Not the way I feel one should live it @ least.

    Anyhow/anyways: The tool I noted? It gives you a pretty fairly accurate picture of "what's-what" out there, in terms of WHO IS ATTACKING WHO with a lot of pertinment data for it -> http://map.norsecorp.com/

    (Yes, before you look @ it, I ought to note I found it @ HEIMDAL SECURITY -> https://heimdalsecurity.com/bl... so you know it's not something "I was trying to 'bushwhack' you with" etc.)

    Enjoy! It's decent & its animations are even accurate with the attack data showing a world map + who is "firing" @ whom... pretty neat, quite useful too imo.

    APK

    P.S.=> Yes, because anyone can host anywhere etc. attribution is DIFFICULT (as in someone in the USA could probably host in China etc. or vice-a-versa making it look like the originating nation IS where the attack comes from, but, it's still a neat tool)... apk

  5. And I care why? by DivineKnight · · Score: 1

    At some point, someone will have to explain what TalkTalk is, how it being hacked is relevant to IT (why do we care?), etc.

    All I have is a website / service being hacked by some teenagers...News @ 11.

    1. Re:And I care why? by 91degrees · · Score: 3, Informative

      British Internet and mobile phone company.

      Quite a large one. Lots of customers. We'd really expect a company this size to be able to resist some teenage script kiddies. The nature of the breech means that a lot of customer details have been compromised.

    2. Re:And I care why? by jonbryce · · Score: 1

      They are one of the big four telecoms / internet companies in the UK. The others are BT, Sky and Virgin. I believe they are the second largest in the internet market, Sky is bigger because it also does satellite TV.

  6. So not 'Russian Islamist' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Read this bullshitter pushing his racist agenda:

    "Cyber security consultant and former Scotland Yard detective Adrian Culley told BBC that a Russian Islamist group had posted online to claim responsibility for the attacks."

    "Cyber-crime is not just committed by bored teenagers. There are thousands of computer graduates globally now working for very sophisticated criminal gangs, as these are the only jobs they can get."

    Says Mr bullshitter.

    From the description released by Talk Talk all the hackers did was scrape the data off a website. But Talk Talk won't say because they have the right not to incriminate themselves by admitting that.