Second suspect arrested over TalkTalk cyber attack

Gang behind DroidJack Android Trojan also arrested in pan-European operation

The Metropolitan Police has this morning arrested a second suspect in connection with last week's cyber attack against internet service provider TalkTalk.

The suspect, a 16-year-old boy, was arrested in Feltham, West London on suspicion of having commited offences under the Computer Misuse Act. An address in Liverpool has also been searched by officers from the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit.

It comes after a 15-year-old boy from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was arrested on Monday by officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, working with detectives from the Cyber Crime Unit, also on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences in connection with the TalkTalk cyber attack.

TalkTalk was hacked for the third time this year last Wednesday, 21st October. Initially, the company rejected suggestions that it had been attacked after customers reported difficulty accessing their email and the company's website. Late the next day, however, the company admitted that it had been attacked, and that customer data - including bank and credit card details - might have been accessed.

It's CEO, Dido Harding (pictured), claimed that the company had received a ransom note from "cyber jihadis", demanding the sum of £80,000 in bitcoin for the "return" of the stolen data. The company has been accused of running a lackadaisical security regime after it admitted that customer information was held unencrypted.

News of the TalkTalk-related arrest today follows raids and arrests across Europe in connection with the DroidJack malware. Officers in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and Switzerland took part in the operation. And, according to Europol, the EU's police coordination arm, there have also been raids in the US as well.

The DroidJack remote access Trojan is sold for $210 online and enables its users to spy on users of Android devices. The Trojan can intercept smartphone data traffic, as well as hijacking the smartphone's communications tool to eavesdrop on conversations and spy on people via the camera.