TalkTalk to swallow £35m ‘financial impact’ after attack Budget ISP TalkTalk confirmed this morning that it would be hit with a bill of up to £35m following the attack on its systems last month. The security breach affected fewer customers than previously feared, TalkTalk’s chief Dido Harding claimed. It had initially warned that its entire four-million-strong subscriber base could …
she seemed to care very little about anyone who had issues, sure it WAS a criminal attack but the criminal attack would have been worthless if the company wasn't so gung ho with your information. A simply encrypt would have solved everything and even make them look good. She also dodged compensation questions by simply saying customers should phone them for advice.
Err ok. I'll phone the company who didn't secure my financial data for advice on financial matters.
She was a grade A asshat
'We're encouraged customers will stick around after blip', says Harding
Translated, many of our customers are so tied in to the T&C, and we're not waving exit fees, so they're stuck.
Will someone kindly eject Harding out of the board room; we know TalkTalk have suffered realy badly, but she's just making them look silly.
Translated, many of our customers are so tied in to the T&C, and we're not waving exit fees, so they're stuck.
I think it's more a case of not enough people standing up for their rights, plus the usual inertia.
Claiming that customers "stick around" amounts IMHO to misrepresentation, which is not a good thing when talking to the City and shareholders because it does not offer them a view of the risk that customers will still pull the plug as soon as they have gained enough confidence to do so without repercussions.
They're not letting them leave, ignoring their statutory rights, and not giving meaningful conpensation when people do have money taken from their account.
Unfortunately few people know their rights and won't cancel the direct debit, won't quote them their rights, and won't tell them if they want the money they can take them to court.
Also there are loads of people who are barrack room lawyers who think they understand things because they've read some stuff. The same people who comment on manufacturers and returns policies without actually knowing that their contract is with the retailer not the manufacturer.
No one has had money taken from their account, they have been a victim of fraud, perhaps as a result of people targeting them for being a TT customer, but as has been pointed out there isn't enough information for anyone to "take money" without your consent. Sophisticated fraud, perhaps, related to the hack, in some way, does it also happen to non-TalkTalk customers? Regularly, just watch any consumer programme on TV for the past year.
No one has had money taken from their account, they have been a victim of fraud, perhaps as a result of people targeting them for being a TT customer, but as has been pointed out there isn't enough information for anyone to "take money" without your consent.
Maybe not, but there was plenty of other personal data lost. That TalkTalk have been allowed to manoeuvre this round to focusing on direct financial consequences is a crime (not literally) in my book.
They fucked up, badly,and Personally Identifying Info is in the wild when it could have been avoided. That information is more than sufficient to support more targeted operations, which might have direct financial consequences, especially for the more vulnerable customers affected.
TT seems very keen to downplay the potential harm that their ineptitude has caused and refusing to waive termination fees when you've just lost customer data is a pretty low tactic. That the information can't be used, on it's own, to extract money from your account makes it a little better, but doesn't (as TalkTalk would seem to like) make everything better.
There was a story only last week about a Reg reader who was a Talk Talk customer and had money taken from his account around the date that Talk Talk said they were willing to entertain goodwill payments, only for the payment to be about 30 quid.
And if you don't believe him then maybe you'll believe Jeremy Clarkson who published his bank account number saying it wasn't enough information for people to take money out of his account, only to find it was.
That's a big generalised statement you're making, but you seem to have less to back it up than the people who have quoted passages from the DPA and Supply of Goods and Services Act.
Yep, she has form for planning (not) for success. From Wikipedia "She then joined Tesco within Sir Terry Leahy's office as international support director". The overseas venture was akin to flushing millions down the toilet which well equipped her for her next job joining "the board of directors at Sainsbury's as convenience director".
But she knows about horses which is what appears to really interest the Chipping Norton set. Oh and looking after each other.
in an ideal world, I'd say, what goes round (skimping on IT and being famously nasty to their staff) comes round (here comes the bill!).
But it's the real world, and I know EXACTLY where this money will come from, i.e. expect a hike in your bill rather sooner than later. After all, they gotta protect their margin, eh?
Yep, I have a problem with anyone requiring me to take out anything other than a monthly rolling contract. I mean if their value is good I stay and it is a strong incentive for the provider to keep it good. looks like TalkTalk plan to lock in users so they don't have to be good. We can now see why.
I mean its not like even a mobile contract where you may get a high value phone for 'free' on the understanding you pay back the cost over 24 months or whatever. With broadband you get a cheap router on which they spent less than on ads suckering you in and that won't need replacing until a new technology comes along.
But the part that really puzzles me is that at least at the end of your mobile contract you usually go onto a rolling monthly contract or get a new phone/24 month contract. At the end of TalkTalk's lock in can you leave whenever you want? Surely a substantial (majority?) of their customers have been with them more than 24 months. How come they have any customer base (except for the newbies) left?
Was there something nasty left in the T&Cs extending the lock in? Do we need to set up a campaign to "Free the TalkTalk four million"?
the fact is, 99% of people will moan and won't lift a finger. It's not that they don't go to court, or go to other extreme measures, or even get on the phone or write a letter to their ISP. They don't lift a finger, even if they're greatly inconvenienced, they'll just keep moaning, and this is the reason why TalkTalk is safe. It's the same everywhere, you get shafted by your bank, you moan for YEARS, but you do shit, when transfering to another bank (where you'll get shafted by a different banch of wankers) is really, trully, easy-peasy. I get sheared by BT for the phone line and ridiculous charges, like payment charge, low-usage charge, etc, etc., and instead of taking a good swing and kicking myself in the ass VERY hard - I fester. Inertia is human, and that's why most allow to be fucked by those who know and take advantage.
Haven't been able to check the TT T&Cs, so can't validate if it's still the case, but most of the fixed line operators had a condition that after the initial 12 month contract, you transferred onto another 12 month contract, not a monthly rolling contract.
There was a stooshie about it a couple of years ago for BT, but I doubt it was properly resolved, so most long term TT customers are probably on yearly rolling contracts (as I say, I wasn't able to verify, hence my suspicion it's still the case).
by the top business for "riding the storm" (read: ignoring the calls for financial restitution, allowing people to leave by end of contract, etc.). I just wonder if this behaviour is going to be a model for other companies which fuck up (you got a problem, Dear Customer?! Well, FUCK YOU, and what are you gonna do about it?!)
I'm betting that most of their customers probably haven't taken any notice of what has happened and are completely unaware of any issue. It's also the case that the average person thinks that it's just too much hassle to switch and can't be bothered.
My ISP sold their business to TalkTalk and were supposed to be contacting me to tell me when the switch would happen; but so far, no info on this. But you can bet that once it happens, I'm out of there. I'll argue in court if they want to try to charge me an exit fee; as far as I'm concerned, they can go swivel if they think that I'll pay them one penny.
It's the next half's figures that will be most telling as by then they will have lost customers who are outside of their contract and the retention offers will obliterate the company's barely-there margins. I don't expect they'll be signing up so many customers since last month either.
And that's even before taking into account the cost of the "free upgrades" they're having to underwrite (which are of course just a cynical effort to sign millions of unsuspecting punters up to a new two years of misery).
I suspect they'll retain most of their customer base through inertia and sometime in the spring will rebrand avoiding the "new customer" issue.
Personally I'm one of those rural ADSL customers who Virgin sold transferred to TalkTalk. If weren't planning on moving they'd be out on their ear - as it is they won't get the business at the new house.
"Did they fill the InfoSec vacancy yet?!"
Nope, I'm still getting recruitment consultants trying to convince me to sign up. They all start with 'the client is a company who perhaps haven't taken information security as seriously as they should..' and then tries to paint landing in the middle of this clusterfuck as a huge opportunity.
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