What can we learn from the TalkTalk hack?

TalkTalk is the latest major company to fall victim to a significant cyber attack during which some of their customers banking details may have been accessed.

While TalkTalk has gone on to say that the details accessed may have only been partly exposed, users are being warned that they could be targeted by opportunistic cyber criminals.

It is relatively common that in the aftermath of a high profile attack hackers and other cyber criminals seize on the confusion and concern of customers by attempting to trick them into handing over sensitive information.

An example of this could be a hacker sending out thousands of emails pretending to be representing TalkTalk and offering instructions on how to reset their password. A worried TalkTalk customer might see this email and happily think they are changing their password through a link provided in the email.

Many people in this situation will provide a new password which will be easy for them to remember and is most likely used on another account, therefore providing the hacker with an easy route to accessing the user’s other personal accounts.

It is incredibly important that businesses have an up-to-date security policy which includes the education of employees about possible methods of attack but also utilises the most up to date software to prevent against breaches.

Businesses can employ the use of the latest firewalls which can prevent malicious content and the latest anti-virus software to disinfect any virus’s that could potentially cause damage.

Here at ECL we have extensive experience in protecting businesses against the latest computer viruses, spam, phishing scams and other threats. For more information please, please call us on 01268 575300 or email us on info@ecl.co.uk