Two men are facing a prison sentence after
admitting their part in the recent TalkTalk data breach.
The attack saw the details of thousands of
customers compromised, at a cost of around £42 million.
According to the BBC, Matthew Hanley, 22, pleaded guilty to
compromising the security of the company’s website between October 18 and 22 in
2015.
The Old Bailey in London, UK, also heard that
Hanley had then passed on the details to Connor Allsopp, 20.
The pair, who both herald from Tamworth,
Staffordshire, were told they would be sentenced next May.
Hanley denied other cybercrime charges, which
included allegedly hacking into NASA, the National Climatic Data Centre and
another 23 websites including Spotify, Telstra, the RAC and The Eton
Collection.
The upcoming sentence of the duo comes after a
17-year-old youth was given a 12-month rehabilitation order for posting details
of a weakness in Talk Talk’s online security.
When appearing at Norwich Youth Court, he
reportedly said he was just “showing off” to his friends.
That revelation fits in with the findings of a recent study by
the UK government’s National Crime Agency, which found that many offenders
commit cybercrime as a way of gaining a sense of notoriety and popularity among
their peers.
The paper also warned that the average age of those involved
in cybercrime (17) is significantly lower when compared to other offences, such
as drugs (37).
In this case, the teenager’s actions reportedly
paved the way for the attack, although the teenager in question was found to
have uncovered a weakness in the company’s security by way of using completely
legitimate software.
The TalkTalk website was reportedly targeted over
14,000 times after that vulnerability was exposed, with the company later
claiming that the breach had cost it around £42 million, including a record £400,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s
Office.