A young woman pranced towards my husband on Paisley’s high street the other day, proferring a leaflet. “Want to sign up to TalkTalk?” she chirruped. “I’m already with TalkTalk,” he replied, hurrying past. “More’s the pity.” But his disgruntlement was about to get a lot worse. Hours later, news broke that hackers had slipped past TalkTalk’s security systems, like robbers drilling through a bank vault door.

One pities the salesforce on the street the next day, trying to interest people in a firm as reliable as Northern Rock. Presumably they have been withdrawn from the front line, lest customers take their anger out on them. But those who are signed up to broadband with this now tarnished company, as in our household, apparently can’t even WalkWalk to another provider without paying a penalty. And believe me, after a long-running series of petty gripes these past few months, we had been considering it. But that’s another story, more suitable as a scenario for One Foot in the Grave than for The Great Bank Robbery.

The current scandal is spine-chilling. It’s as if a thief has got into your home and is hiding behind the curtains, waiting to make his move. It was days before we were reassured that the hackers could see individuals’ bank details, but not steal money without some help on our part. But with every hour, stories are emerging of the gullible responding to bogus phone calls and helping fraudsters empty their accounts. It is the stuff of sleepless nights. As the daughter of a couple who lost over £9,000 said, they are deeply distressed at having been shown to be old and stupid. They had thought they were smarter than that. Yet they responded to the friendly voice on the line, designed to prey on one’s instinct to be polite, and to trust. Many of us are susceptible to that, whatever our age.

But while I will never forget my husband’s language when hanging up on what we feared was a suspicious call from the bank a few weeks ago – it turned out to be their fraud office alerting him to someone tampering with his account – none of us is sharp enough not to be duped in some way or other.

We and four million like us didn’t, for instance, even consider that TalkTalk would not have adequate protection in place when we handed over bank and credit card details. It’s the sort of thing you simply take for granted – or used to. Yet what can you do about it?

From booking a flight to ordering groceries, we are expected to divulge details of passports, addresses, bank accounts and passwords. Of course, in the pre-digital age we also had to put our faith in those to whom we gave our information.

Were a bank, shop or hotel to turn thief back then, however, the culprit was relatively easy to trace. By comparison, today it seems the individual is left metaphorically clutching a handbag or wallet while tens of thousands of hackers, who could be based in Outer Mongolia or the Inner Hebrides for all we know, try to prise it out of our grasp.

TalkTalk’s break-in makes it frighteningly clear our most sensitive financial and personal information is only ever a phone call or mouse-click away from a cyber thief’s reach. Changing passwords, as we’ve been advised to do, is quickly done. But that means remembering it. Or, as in many homes, I suspect, adding it to the record of passwords for every account and network you are connected to, a list that, like a tapeworm, grows by the month.

Naturally, there are calls for urgent discussion of government oversight of companies who hold large stores of the public’s private information, to ensure they adhere to a high standard of security. Yet by the time new practices or legislation are implemented, today’s hackers will probably be in care homes – which is not a euphemism for prison.

Nor would I feel safer if told that a company to whom I am obliged to give out information would automatically compensate me for any losses incurred. It is like the FSA’s assurance that if a bank collapses, we are soon to be entitled to reimbursement up to £75,000. That’s fine in theory, but when millions of us are demanding restitution, what firm has deep enough pockets to honour that promise?

The issue of online security, sadly, is nothing new. The TalkTalk debacle has simply reminded us that we are all vulnerable, at all times, and though no fault of our own. You don’t need to be a cynic or sceptic, a neurotic or pessimist to be afraid that one day your details will be used against you. Realistic is the word for those feelings.