Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

TalkTalk cyber assault risk for north-east firms

Police are investigating a cyber attack on the TalkTalk website, the telecoms company has revealed.
Police are investigating a cyber attack on the TalkTalk website, the telecoms company has revealed.

Digital disruption is an “imminent threat” to businesses in the north-east in the wake of the TalkTalk cyber attack, a law firm has warned.

Last week four million customers of the telecoms firm were warned their personal details including banking and credit card information could be at risk following a cyber assault claimed by a Russian-based Jihadist group.

TalkTalk’s share price closed down 4.4% to 256.8p on Friday, with the firm facing an estimated £75million hit from redress charges and customer exodus.

Meanwhile, only 33% of businesses said their firms were well equipped to deal with cyber risk, according to a recent survey by law firm Pinsent Masons. Another UK Government-commissioned survey found around 90% of large organisations and 74% of small businesses had experienced information security breaches in the past year.

Pinsent Masons legal director, David Woods, will tell a seminar in Aberdeen next month (Fri 13 Nov) that businesses large and small must be alert to cyber threats and other hostile acts which undermine their digital reputation.

Mr Woods said: “In the new digital world threats to reputational damage come from all quarters and a potential cyber-attack, such as the TalkTalk incident, or a social media backlash, are two serious threats that businesses must face up to.

“Whether a cyber-attack involves online theft or exploitation of intellectual property, business information and customer data, or a denial of service, it strikes at the heart of any organisation, and for most organisations the question is not whether they will suffer a security incident, but when they will be hit, and what they will do when it happens.

“It is how a business reacts which can make all the difference to limiting reputational damage, stabilising share prices and preserving the bottom line,” said intellectual property expert Mr Woods.

News of the breach at London-based TalkTalk emerged Thursday night. It has advised customers to check their bank accounts for unusual activity. The firm said it has made free credit reports available to all its customers.

Chief executive Dido Harding said the amount of financial information stolen by the hackers was “materially lower” than initially feared and that the breach did not affect all of the firm’s 4million customers.

But the firm now faces calls to release customers who have been affected by the data raid.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer protection body Which?, said:

“We expect that any affected TalkTalk customers who want to leave their contract should be able to do so without penalty.

“This data breach will worry TalkTalk customers and it’s critical that the company now does all that it can to ensure people get clear information about what’s happening and how they can protect themselves.”