A security tool being trialled by TalkTalk will be free of charge to the company's broadband customers when it is launched later in the year, the firm's Managing Director of Technology has claimed.

Clive Dorsman explained that TalkTalk is currently testing a system that alerts the broadband user if they are viewing a website containing viruses or other threats.

"We see this as important as online security experts estimate that at least 70 per cent of malware is caught from an infected webpage," he wrote on TalkTalk's website.

He went on to explain that as the trial of the scanning system progresses, TalkTalk customers will be invited to test it to make sure that it meets high standards.

Once the trial period has been completed, customers will be able to opt-in to use it, but this will not be compulsory.

Last week, TalkTalk's Chairman Charles Dunstone explained that the company is currently working on fitting its own unbundled fibre networkthat will provide more consistent and faster broadband to people all over the UK when complete.