A pair of young men, both from Tamworth in Staffordshire, have admitted to their roles in the 2015 TalkTalk hack, which saw thousands of TalkTalk customers’ data stolen.

The two were sentenced at the Old Bailey for their actions. Mathew Hanley, 23, was handed a 12-month sentence, while his associate Conor Allsopp, 21, was given eight months in jail for his lesser role in the crime.

The Judge Anuja Dhir QC, said in court, that it was a tragedy for “two individuals of such extraordinary talent” to appear in the dock before her.

She told the pair: “You were both involved in a significant, sophisticated systematic hack attack in a computer system used by TalkTalk. The prosecution accepts that neither of you exposed the vulnerability in their systems, or started it, but you at different times joined in.”

“I’m sure that your actions caused misery and distress to the many thousands of the customers at TalkTalk.”

Hanley confessed to attacking TalkTalk’s website between 18th and 22nd of October 2015, to supplying data for another individual and of giving Allsopp the personal and financial details of customers.

TalkTalk Failed to Implement Basic Security Measures

The court heard that the hack had cost the company £77 million, however, that figure was reached by the company’s chief financial officer and not an independent body.

The company itself was fined a record £400,000 for its cybersecurity failures. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) apportioned significant blame to the company for failing to take basic steps to protect its customers’ information.

The ICO stated: “For no good reason, TalkTalk appears to have overlooked the need to ensure it had robust measures in place despite having the financial and staffing resources available”.

TalkTalk spotted problems with its site on the 21st of October 2015 and launched an investigation before alerting its customers the following day.

This led to the company’s then-CEO, Dido Harding, being subjected to blackmail attempts by hackers who demanded he provide bitcoin in exchange for the stolen data.

TalkTalk has said it would not be commenting on the sentence.