Jail for TalkTalk hackers

Hackers Matthew Hanley and Connor Allsopp are paying the price for selling TalkTalk customer data to crooks.

They were jailed this week for 12 months and eight months respectively for the data breach in 2015, and I well remember the aftermath, with fraudsters lining up to scam TalkTalk customers.

“The caller said he was from TalkTalk and there was a problem with my computer,” one customer told me. “He gave my account number and address so I thought it was genuine.” The 70-year-old was persuaded to give the caller access to his computer to fix the supposed fault.

This chap was one of the lucky ones, smelling a rat when the caller tried to withdraw £2,700 from his bank account.

Many others were not so lucky. Hanley, 23, and Allsopp, 21, did not defraud anyone, but they were paid by people who did and I can’t feel any sympathy for them.