Police are investigating a “significant and sustained cyber attack” on the TalkTalk website, the telecoms company has revealed.
The phone and broadband provider, which has more than four million customers in the UK, said credit card and bank details along with personal information may have been accessed during the attack.
A TalkTalk spokesman said: “We are continuing to work with leading cyber crime specialists and the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened and the extent of any information accessed.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed its Cyber Crime Unit was investigating an allegation of data theft which was reported on Wednesday.
“There have been no arrests and enquiries are ongoing,” a force spokeswoman said.
The Talk Talk website was unavailable to customers tonight and displayed the message: “Sorry we are currently facing technical issues, our engineers are working hard to fix it. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
A TalkTalk spokesman said: “A criminal investigation was launched by the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit following a significant and sustained cyber attack on our website yesterday.
“That investigation is ongoing, but unfortunately there is a chance that some of the following data has been compromised: names, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, TalkTalk account information, credit card details and/or bank details.
“We are continuing to work with leading cyber crime specialists and the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened and the extent of any information accessed.”
The company’s chief executive, Dido Harding, said: “TalkTalk constantly updates its systems to make sure they are as secure as possible against the rapidly evolving threat of cyber crime, impacting an increasing number of individuals and organisations.
“We take any threat to the security of our customers’ data extremely seriously and we are taking all the necessary steps to understand what has happened here. As a precaution, we are contacting all our customers straight away with information, support and advice around yesterday’s attack.”