Another teenager has been arrested over the recent TalkTalk hack, meaning police have now picked up five youngsters in relation to the security breach.
This time, the Met's Cyber Crime Unit and police from the Southern Wales Regional Organised Crime Unit have arrested an 18-year-old in Llanelli, South Wales, and searched the boy's home.
Unlike the previous arrests, where suspects were detained under suspicion of offences contravening the Computer Misuse Act, this youngster has been arrested under suspicion of blackmail, the Register reports.
Shortly after the hack story broke, TalkTalk said it was contacted with a ransom demand, so perhaps this ties in to that particular side of the affair.
Police are currently questioning the 18-year-old, and if his case is like those of the preceding teenagers, he will be released on bail shortly. Those previous arrests include a 16-year-old from Norwich, 20-year-old from Staffordshire, 16-year-old from Feltham and a 15-year-old boy from County Antrim.
The cyber-attack on TalkTalk was initially estimated to have affected over 1 million customers, but the company later revised that figure to 157,000. Those were folks who had their personal details compromised – fortunately those whose financial details were affected were fewer still.
In total, over 15,000 bank account details were compromised, and 28,000 credit card numbers were accessed, although the latter had parts of the number hidden so weren't usable.
