TalkTalk hack: Bank account details of 21,000 TalkTalk customers were hacked

The bank account details of 21,000 TalkTalk customers were accessed in a data breach, the company has announced.

Up to 28,000 obscured credit and debit card details were also accessed, as were 1.2 million customer email addresses, names and phone numbers.

The scale of the data breach was revealed as a teenage boy from Feltham was being questioned after he was arrested by officers investigating the hack on suspicion of computer misuse.

Police also announced they had searched a home in Liverpool over the data breach. A 15-year-old boy frtom County Antrim in Northern Ireland was this week bailed after he was arrested in connection with the alleged data theft.

TalkTalk said the data accessed was “significantly less than originally suspected”.

A spokesman said: “Even though the scale of the attack is significantly smaller than initially suspected, we continue to advise customers to be vigilant, and to take all precautions possible to protect themselves from scam phone calls and emails."

The developments come just over a week after TalkTalk revealed data of up to four million of its customers may have been stolen in what was believed to be one of the biggest cyber attacks ever.

The latest breach is the third in a spate of data breach affecting TalkTalk in the last eight months, with incidents in August and February resulting in customers' data being taken.