The by now infamous hack perpetrated on TalkTalk's website will cost the company a hell of a lot of money, and indeed a figure has now been put on the damage likely to have been done.
According to TalkTalk, losses will extend to between £30 million and £35 million as a result of "exceptional one-off costs", the Telegraph reports.
That sum includes the cost of dealing with the incident and providing customer support in its wake, and also lost sales as revenue has been down since the revelation of the hack, which has obviously made some folks think twice about signing up with TalkTalk.
As an attempt to make amends, TalkTalk has announced that customers will get a choice of free (financially free, as well as commitment free) upgrades from the start of next month.
These upgrades include TV content (including movies and sports), unlimited landline and mobile calls, a mobile SIM card with a free monthly allowance of calls, texts and data, and also a "broadband health check" carried out by TalkTalk engineers.
Freebies for all
Said freebies aren't only for the 157,000 customers who were affected by the hack, rather every TalkTalk user will benefit from them.
TalkTalk also said that it has implemented a new bundle of security features for broadband and phone customers to help in the battle against malware and scams. These will include F-Secure antivirus and the HomeSafe web filter on the online front, with call blocking features for landline customers.
Of course, the company had to make some kind of major move to help placate customers – but there's still the threat of potential class action lawsuits which could add to the expense TalkTalk is facing over this data breach.
