UK Police Make Fifth Arrest in TalkTalk Hack Inquiry

An 18-year-old youth from Wales who was detained on Tuesday in the fifth arrest connected to a cyber-attack on telecom company TalkTalk was bailed on Wednesday pending further investigations, police said in a statement.

Police searched an address in the town of Llanelli on Tuesday and took the youth into custody on suspicion of blackmail. They did not name him or provide any further details.

He was bailed to a date in March 2016 while police inquiries continue.

TalkTalk said on October 23 it had received a ransom demand from an unidentified party claiming responsibility for the attack. It said the demand for payment came by email into the corporate email account of Chief Executive Dido Harding.

The four others who have been arrested as part of the investigation into the TalkTalk hack are three younger teenagers and one 20-year-old man.

All four are suspected of Computer Misuse Act offences and have been bailed pending further inquiries.

The October 21 attack, which experts said appeared to use well-established hacking techniques, resulted in the theft of data from some of the phone and broadband provider's 4 million customers.

TalkTalk earlier this month put the cost of last month's cyber-attack at GBP 30 million to GBP 35 million ($45.43 million-$53.00 million or roughly Rs. 303 crores - Rs. 353 crores), and said it was too soon to gauge the impact on customer numbers, although it did see an immediate spike in defections. Chief Executive Dido Harding said it had been a "challenging time" for the broadband company's 4 million customers.

© Thomson Reuters 2015