Pair face jail over hacking of TalkTalk’s customer data

TWO friends could face jail for their part in the £42 million hack attack on the TalkTalk website.

Matthew Hanley, 22, and Connor Allsopp, 20, both from Tamworth, admitted charges linked to the massive data breach in 2015. Hanley pleaded guilty to hacking into the website of the telecommunications giant between October 18 and 22 2015.

He also supplied data for hacking to another man and gave his friend Allsopp the personal and financial details of a TalkTalk customer for the use in fraud.

Hanley, of Devonshire Drive, denied other charges relating hacking into Nasa, the National Climatic Data Centre and another 23 websites including Spotify, Telstra, the RAC and The Eton Collection which were ordered to lie on file.

At an earlier hearing, his friend Allsopp, of Coronation Street, admitted supplying a TalkTalk customer’s details for fraud and as well as files for hacking.

Old Bailey Judge Michael Topolski ordered reports for both defendants and adjourned sentencing until May 31.

In November, a 17-year-old youth was handed a 12-month rehabilitation order after he admitted sparking off the TalkTalk hacking when he posted details of a chink in the firm’s online security. The youth paved the way for others to exploit the weakness for money by accessing the data of 160,000 people.

The teenager found the vulnerability in the TalkTalk website using legitimate software and shared details of this online.

The website was targeted more than 14,000 times after the boy exposed the vulnerability.

The cyber attack in October 2015 cost TalkTalk £42 million as personal data from 160,000 people was accessed.