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UK telecom TalkTalk revealed Friday that an "individual or a group purporting to be the hacker" had demanded a ransom relating to what the company has called a "significant and sustained cyberattack." News of the cyberattack was first revealed on Thursday."I do think that you see more cyber criminals wanting to effectively make money by extorting the companies that hold that data," TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding told the BBC.TalkTalk said there was "a chance" that personal data like names, addresses, dates of birth, and credit card and/or bank details of its 4 million customers may have been compromised in the attack. Harding also admitted Friday that she "didn't know" if that data was encrypted."I would love to be able to give you that complete and unequivocal assurance," Harding said in that same BBC interview. "But it would be wrong of me to give you that today, when the amount of data that these criminals have had access to is very large. I don't want to give a false impression of confidence where I don't have it."This is the third cyberattack to hit TalkTalk this year, with previous attacks targeting its mobile website in August and its customers' data on company computers in February.The cyber crimes unit of London's Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation into the matter.