TalkTalk expects criminals unable to steal money after cyber attack

(Adds CEO quotes, background, details)

LONDON, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 24 (Reuters) - British broadband provider TalkTalk said on Saturday it did not believe the authors of a cyber attack against it this week would be able to steal money from its customers.

The firm said on Friday it had received a ransom demand from an unidentified party claiming responsibility for the cyber attack that may have led to the theft of personal data from its more than 4 million customers.

"It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is a smaller attack than we had originally thought," Chief Executive Dido Harding told Sky News.

"Any credit card information that has been stolen has the six middle digits of the credit card blanked out so cannot be used for financial transactions," she said.

The company, which has had two other data breaches this year, also said that the attack did not hit its systems and that customers' website account passwords had not been accessed.

But British business leaders on Saturday warned about the danger of cyber crime and urged police to make the issue an urgent priority, saying firms faced continual security breaches. (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Catherine Evans)