Two friends
who took part in a £77m hack on the TalkTalk website have been jailed.
Matthew
Hanley, 23, and Connor Allsopp, 21, both from Tamworth in Staffordshire,
admitted their roles in the massive 2015 data breach which saw 156,959 accounts
accessed.
Hanley,
described as a "dedicated hacker", shared details of more than 8,000
customers with Allsopp.
At the Old
Bailey, Hanley was jailed for 12 months and Allsopp for eight.
Sentencing,
Judge Anuja Dhir QC said they were "individuals of extraordinary
talent".
"I'm
sure that your actions caused misery and distress to the many thousands of the
customers at TalkTalk," she said.
The court
accepted that neither Hanley, of Devonshire Drive, nor Allsopp, of Coronation
Street, had "exposed the vulnerability in [TalkTalk's] systems... but you
at different times joined in," Judge Dhir said.
In November
2015, a 17-year-old boy admitted posting details of a chink in the firm's
online security, sparking the breach.
Analysis by
BAE Systems suggested there may have been up to 10 attackers.
Hanley also
obtained computer files including names and passwords for server systems
belonging to Nasa, after a Skype contact forwarded the details as "a
little present".
TalkTalk
spotted issues with its site on 21 October 2015 and launched an investigation
before warning customers the following day.
This led to
its then-CEO Dido Harding being subjected to blackmail attempts, with hackers
demanding Bitcoin in exchange for the stolen data.
Hanley
admitted hacking into the website between 18 and 22 October 2015, supplying
data for hacking to another man and giving Allsopp the personal and financial
details of customers.
Allsopp also
admitted obtaining the Nasa passwords.
Sophisticated,
systematic hack
The court
heard he had boasted of having this material and erased all the content off his
computer before his arrest on 30 October 2015.
Allsopp
admitted supplying customer details to another user for fraud as well as the
necessary files for hacking.
Judge Dhir
said the pair were "both involved in a significant, sophisticated
systematic hack attack in a computer system used by TalkTalk".
"The
total loss to TalkTalk as a result of this overall attack is estimated to be
£77 million but the loss does not end there," she added.
TalkTalk
said it would not be commenting following the sentence.
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