Britain’s TalkTalk put the cost of last month’s cyber attack at £30m-£35m (€42m-€49m), and said it was too soon to gauge the impact on customer numbers, although it did see an immediate spike in defections.

Top flight shares struggled for direction yesterday, even after British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) upgraded its targets and announced a new boss at the UK carrier.

A third person has been arrested by police investigating the cyber attack on telecoms firm TalkTalk.

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the North in connection with a cyber attack on the website of telecoms company TalkTalk.

Up to 25,000 jobs could be created in the southeast region over the coming years under a new employment action plan, according to the Government.

Shares in the owner of Carphone Warehouse fell today after it revealed that the personal details of up to 2.4 million people may have been stolen when a division of the company was hit by a cyber attack.

The personal data of up to 2.4m customers of Dixons Carphone may have been exposed in a cyber attack, the electrical goods and mobile phone retailer confirmed.

Hopes for a turnaround in Europe’s economic fortunes cheered investors today as the FTSE 100 Index rallied to within 100 points of its record level.

TalkTalk warned full-year earnings would be at the lower end of expectations as it absorbed Tesco’s loss-making blinkbox operation and said its programme of cost savings was on course to miss its target.

BT has revealed that its pension deficit has swollen to £7bn as it agreed a 16-year recovery plan that will include £2bn in payments over the next three years.

One of the country’s unemployment blackspots is to have its own jobs tsar after the Government’s decision to appoint a regional manager to the area.

The European Parliament has voted in favour of a report from a Sinn Féin MEP that calls for greater access to an EU fund for people who lost their jobs as a result of the economic crisis.

BSkyB fought back against intensifying competition today by launching a £10 TV box allowing viewers to watch on-demand services.

The head of BT has defended the telecoms giant against claims it is being unfairly propped up by the British government to roll out fibre broadband across the UK.

Sky is to become the UK’s second-largest broadband provider after agreeing a deal today to buy rival O2’s half a million customer accounts.

A total of €2.6m has been offered to the Government by the EU to help put 432 redundant workers from call centre, TalkTalk, back to work.

WITH the move towards a “smart economy” all the rage in recent years, often what made Ireland grow from the 1960s onwards has been forgotten.

Laid-off TalkTalk employees were voted €2.7m from the EU to help with retraining, education and self-employment supports by the European Parliament.

Workers who were made redundant from TalkTalk in Waterford last year are set to gain access to EU monies to help them upskill and retrain.

Just 560 former Dell workers found work again despite more than €13m of EU and state funds being spent on them.

The Irish-owned telecommunications group Digiweb returned to profitability last year despite a dip in revenues.

The final of the X Factor is to be staged outside London for the first time.

In the first of a five-day series on unemployment, we focus on the county of Waterford, which has suffered more than its fair share of job losses, writes Conor Kane

A ringing endorsement of the State-funded training body Skillnets has been made by companies using the service, with 97% saying it has helped fill skill gaps and 87% acknowledging its contribution to a rise in productivity.

PICTURE the scene in Cobh in the late 1840s as the huddled and wretchedly emaciated figures litter the quay side, idly flicking through Noonan’s Guide to the New World, musing: “Oooooh, shall I stay here and starve to death, or take a lovely little cruise on a famine ship and get some sun? Decisions, decisions ...”

JOBS Minister Richard Bruton has warned that the Government can’t create new jobs and it is up to successful companies to come up with their own plans and develop their own markets in order to expand.

IN THE face of an unemployment rate which is almost a third higher than the average for the rest of the country, the Government has published an employment action plan for the south-east.

UP to 1,250 Aviva workers facing redundancy will lose out on retraining grants from the EU while money for TalkTalk employees hangs in the balance.

THE Government has just seven months in which to spend the latest money approved under the European Globalisation Fund.

THE recession-ravaged South-east will see a €200,000 start-up scheme at the heart of a jobs plan for the area to be revealed next week.

TalkTalk today warned broadband user numbers will not return to growth until next year, despite efforts to resolve customer service problems.

THE Government is planning to seek EU funding to help retrain workers who lost jobs in the financial services sectors.

Fears are growing today over hundred of jobs at insurance giant Aviva as management meet staff over the future of its Irish operations.

A state-funded enterprise group is to invest €250,000 in re-training the former workers at TalkTalk in Waterford.

The Government intends to apply for a European grant to assist the 575 workers axed from TalkTalk.

The TalkTalk customer support centre in Waterford closes today with the loss of 575 jobs.

WORKERS at the Waterford call centre TalkTalk have still not received official confirmation of their job losses — effective from tomorrow.

WATERFORD Institute of Technology (WIT) should be able to apply to become a technological university by early next year, as a result of political moves to speed up the process after the recent TalkTalk job losses.

Insurance giant Aviva is under increasing pressure to make an announcement amid fears a business review is earmarking 500 redundancies at its Irish operations.

A group of union representatives will meet management at TalkTalk today for discussions on a redundancy package for workers.

The EU Commissioner for Employment is to investigate the planned closure of the TalkTalk call centre in Waterford, with the loss 575 jobs.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said today that he has asked the State agencies to develop a South East Employment Action Plan within the next 30 days.

TalkTalk has said that the company's plan to close its Waterford call centre within 30 days remains unchanged.