TalkTalk loses 101,000 customers in wake of cyber attack

Dido Harding

UK operator TalkTalk said it lost some 101,000 customers and took a financial hit totalling up to £60 million after it suffered a major cyber attack in October.

In a fiscal third quarter and full year 2016 trading update, TalkTalk said that an estimated 95,000 of the 101,000 customers it lost were due to the cyber attack.

It also said that the cyber attack resulted in a trading impact of £15 million and “exceptional costs” of  £40 million to £45 million.

Despite this, TalkTalk reported good on-net revenue, up 4.5%, and said it had Q3 revenue growth of 1.8%.

“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,” said TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding.

“Both churn and new connections recovered during December and January and 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.”

TalkTalk said last year that a total 156,959 customers had their personal details hacked, while 15,656 bank account numbers and sort codes were accessed.