Vital Info For Our Talk Talk Users – Grasp 15′
Vital Info For Our Talk Talk Users – Grasp 15′
As most of your are aware, internet service provider Talk Talk have fallen foul of quite a large scale hacking issue. Its estimated that some 157’000 of its customers were hacked with 15’600 bank details potentially compromised.
What happens now/What should I do?
Talk Talk have been quick to assure customers that those who have had their bank details compromised will be or have been contacted. Talk Talk have stated that to add insult to injury there have been some scam calls to Talk Talk customers using leaked or hacked information purporting to be Talk Talk themselves and asking for pin codes and alike. The big giveaway is simply that Talk Talk will absolutely not request information of this kind over the telephone, so this should be a clear warning. Another good idea is to request a reference number then call Talk Talk yourself on 0203 441 5550 (5 minutes after the initial call to ensure there is no hanging hackers on the telephone line) if you’re not sure.
Be careful also not to respond to any suspicious Talk Talk emails. Hackers are very adept at making emails look like they come from a reputable company. Don’t click on links in emails, it is safer to manually type a link out to ensure you aren’t clicking through to a phishing website where your information is further compromised.
Although you may feel a bit worried about doing so, it is a good idea to keep an eye on your bank account and keep a special look out for small bits of money that have been withdrawn from your account from a source you do not recognize. Often hackers will try to take small amounts across many thousands of bank accounts so that they don’t raise alarms among people and they also make quite a haul out of the amount of accounts they have access to.
And lastly, but certainly not least, put in the effort and change as many passwords for your various online accounts as quick as you can. Starting with accounts with bank details and personal information first. Try and assign multiple different passwords to accounts. Obviously if someone figures out one of your passwords, they will apply it to other accounts, leaving you very vulnerable. So mix it up a bit and read below for the correct way to approach assigning yourself passwords.
General Security Steps
The truth is, sometimes these things are entirely out of the customers hands. However every person should have a procedure for when such things occur as ultimately everyone with any provider could be vulnerable to such hacking issues. Simple steps can often put you in a stronger defensive position against hacking such as making sure your passwords for various accounts have alphanumerical form with as many characters as you can permit and also with a special character (!ӣ$%^&*) where possible. The more you can do to make it difficult to access your account in the first place the better.
You can also make yourself less vulnerable by not keeping sensitive information such as banking details in your email accounts if possible as once your email account is accessed, it is usually a bit of a treasure trove for perusing hackers. The less information you store online that could potentially allow access to hackers to further accounts the better. Leaked eBay information is another classic, permitting hackers indirect access to your bank account via PayPal.
Normally simple common sense would prevail. Think of your online accounts like your garden shed.Not entirely impervious to unwanted entry’s, so why keep your paperwork and sensitive information in it?
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