Independent investigation into cyber attack that hit Transport for London - Southwark News

There will be an independent investigation into the cyber attack affecting Transport for London (TfL) and how the organization responded.

The effects of the cyber attack targeting TfL on 31 August have been felt for several weeks and months, and the transport authority has only recently reopened applications for its new Oyster photo cards.

The organization had suspended applications as a precautionary measure while it carried out security checks to “reduce the risk of further attacks”.

While TfL stressed that the incident largely “did not disrupt our core operations”, documents released ahead of the next board meeting on Tuesday night reveal that there will be an “independent review” to see how the attack was handled.

“Given the nature and scale of the cyber incident, an independent review will be undertaken to assess the circumstances surrounding the incident and its impact, our response to the incident and whether further improvements to our cyber security strategy are needed, taking into account current ongoing initiatives,” the papers state.

“The investigation may be carried out in phases as the cyber incident is ongoing and is the subject of criminal investigation by the NCA (National Crime Agency). The review will be overseen by our Board members.”

The papers add: “We continue to work with the NCA and NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) to conduct a full investigation into the incident and the NCA has confirmed an arrest has been made to date.

“Partners (including NCSC, NCA and Microsoft) noted that we responded well to the incident and prevented the attack to some extent, potentially preventing a much worse outcome.

“Our investigations found that some limited customer data was accessed. We contacted approximately 5,000 customers whose bank account information was accessed as a precaution to offer support and guidance.”

At a meeting of the London Assembly oversight committee on Wednesday, TfL chief technology officer Shashi Verma gave an update on the reopening of Oyster photo card applications.

He said: “We are working to process all applications as quickly as possible and have already processed and dispatched over 30,000 18+ Oyster student photocards, over 10,000 60+ Oyster photocards and around 600 Apprentice photocards since applications reopened .

“Once an application for a new photo card has been made, where possible, any remaining credit on expired Oyster photo cards can be transferred to new photo cards by contacting our customer services team.

“Customers are also advised to keep a record of the fees that need to be refunded. “We are starting to work on our refunds for some of our customers and are working in order of priority, starting with the oldest cases.”

Related Posts