17-year-old boy admits seven hacking offences in TalkTalk data breach

A 17-year-old boy has admitted to playing a role in the "significant and sustained" cyberattack that hit UK telecoms giant TalkTalk in October 2015.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of the suspects apprehended in November last year and charged with breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Appearing at Norwich Youth Court on Tuesday (15 November), he admitted seven charges with sentencing adjourned until 13 December.

According to the BBC, the teenager admitted to using "hacking software" to scan for vulnerabilities on target websites.

The TalkTalk hack compromsied 156,959 customer records alongside 15,656 "obscured" bank accounts and sort codes.

The incident, which garnered a barrage of press attention, was investigated by a joint taskforce from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Metropolitan Police cybercrime unit.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined the firm a record £400,000 last month.

"TalkTalk's failure to implement the most basic cybersecurity measures allowed hackers to penetrate TalkTalk's systems with ease," said Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham at the time.

A number of arrests were made across the UK and Northern Ireland after the incident – with some suspects as young as 15.

In July 2016, TalkTalk revealed the fallout from the cyberattack had cost it £42million which reportedly resulted in a halving of its pre-tax profits.

Yet most recently, the UK telecom appeared to be on the rise – claiming a surge in interim profits.As reported, operating profit came in at £60m ($75m) for the six months ended 30 September. This was more than double the £25m profit reported in the same period a year ago.

More to follow...