14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday afternoon, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) arrested a 15-year-old boy under the suspicion of being the chief culprit behind the TalkTalk data breach, The Guardian reports.
The boy, living in County Antrim, was taken into custody at around 4:20 PM by local police based on a lead received from the Metropolitan Police's Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU).
After the teenager's arrest, police forces executed a search warrant to look for further evidence of the hack.
The TalkTalk data breach first came to light five days ago, when the UK ISP publicly acknowledged an intrusion into its infrastructure that allowed an attacker to steal customer details like names, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses, telephone numbers, credit card details, bank details, and information relating to TalkTalk accounts.
Following the news of the hack, TalkTalk shares were down 12% this week. Legally, the company is also facing a maximum fine of £0.5 million ($0.76 million / €0.45 million), which is pocket change for a firm that had revenues of £1.8 billion ($2.76 billion / €2.5 billion) only last year.
This was TalkTalk’s third data breach this year, and the company has managed to lose customer details for around 10 million of its customers only in 2015.
TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding has revealed that the company received a ransom email after the attack had happened, asking for payment or the hackers would release the data on the Internet.