Been hacked? It's your fault!

LAST week the major UK-headquartered communications company Talk Talk was hit by hackers who may have stolen a large amount of personal information about the company's customers. Clearly the hackers are criminals and the company has been the victim of a crime.

But in the eyes of most commentators and, it seems, to the company's customers, Talk Talk is as culpable as the actual perpetrators. Fair or not, it appears that a company whose computers are hacked by criminals is likely to itself be the subject of intense criticism, for letting itself be hacked.

In fact, according to mutual liability insurer North P&I Club, companies in the shipping industry can expect to be penalised if they are thought not to be doing enough to combat so-called "cyber crime".