In reply to a post by BatBoy:

It's sounding less and less serious

A master-class in PR from TalkTalk:

TalkTalk says it was �not legally required� to encrypt leaked customer data

Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, Chi Onwurah, is to ask an Urgent Question on data breaches and consumer protection on Monday 26 October 2015 in the House of Commons. She will ask about the Government's responsibilities and policies protecting consumers and infrastructure from large scale data breaches such as that suffered by Talk Talk.

It is estimated the Urgent Question will begin 4.15pm, following the Urgent Question on the arrest of protesters. Timings are approximate as Parliamentary business is subject to change.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2015/october/...

TalkTalk hack: Former customers warned they could be affected by cyber attack - Telegraph's Exclusive

Why arent your details removed once you leave?

You have left, they have no reason to hold any personal information on you anymore

They probably need most of it for seven years, for accounting purposes.

There could be many reasons (commercial, legal) for organisations keeping personal data for a certain period of time. Unfortunately, the Data Protection Act does not specify the length of time it can be kept for as it could be different in different situations:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-p...

I am not sure if it is applicable to personal data, but the European Union's Data Retention Directive also specifies that all telecommunications data in the UK is kept for a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years.

An interesting development

The last thing TalkTalk needed is to be humiliated by a teenager. Unless he is being headhunted by them to be their next Chief Security Officer.

I wonder who his ISP is?

If he did it alone give him a job. One clever kid