TalkTalk’s massive cyber attack last year cost it £60 million

Bloomberg/BI

TalkTalk, the British telecoms company, has revealed the cost of the cyber attack which exposed the details of hundreds of thousands of people in late 2015.

In a trading update released on Tuesday morning, the company said that in total, the hack cost as much as £60 million ($86 million), split between £15 million ($21.5 million) in trading impacts, and £40-45 million ($57-64 million) in exceptional costs.

The costs far exceed the £35 million ($50 million) it was previously estimated the attack would cost TalkTalk.

TalkTalk made headlines in October after customer details were stolen by hackers, later revealed to be teenagers. The hack led to worries that customers would have money stolen as a result of bank details leaking, although it was never proved that any customers actually lost money.

At the time, Business Insider’s Rob Price spoke to people claiming to be involved with the hack, who said they’d carried it out for “shits and giggles” and that the company’s security was “horrible”.

While the hack reportedly cost TalkTalk nearly a quarter of a million customers, and the £60 million ($) reported on Tuesday morning, the company seems to be recovering pretty strongly, and the rest of their third quarter results are generally positive. Here are the highlights:

• Q3 revenue growth of 1.8%.
• Full year earnings of between £255-265 million ($366-380 million) expected.
• End of year dividend will be increased by 15%.
• Guidance for earnings in 2017 is around £320-360 million ($459-517 million).

Commenting on the results — TalkTalk’s CEO Dido Harding, who faced strong criticism at the time of the the hack — said: “It is encouraging to see the business returning to normal after a challenging quarter that was dominated by the cyber attack. Our customers have responded well, with almost half a million customers choosing to take up our unconditional offer of a free upgrade.”

Harding added that “independent external research has revealed that customers believe that we acted in their best interest. In fact trust in the TalkTalk brand has improved since just after the attack and consideration is higher now than it was before the incident.”

This renewed confidence seems to have buoyed investors in the company, and at the open, shares popped more than 10%. As of 8:45 a.m. GMT (3:45 a.m. ET) shares are up more than 7%, and are trading at around £2.35 ($3.38).

Investing.com