Transport for London confirms cyberattack, assures us all is well

Transport for London (TfL) – responsible for much of the public network carrying people around England’s capital – is battling to stay on top of an unfolding “cyber security incident.”

Confirmation emerged yesterday evening when TfL said: “We are currently dealing with an ongoing cyber security incident.

“The security of our systems and customer data is very important to us, and we have taken immediate action to prevent any further access to our systems.”

TfL said it was “working closely with the relevant government agencies to respond” to the attack and would provide an update when it is resolved.

In a statement sent to The Register, TfL’s Chief Technology Officer, Shashi Verma, said: “We have introduced a number of measures to our internal systems to deal with an ongoing cyber security incident.”

“Although we’ll need to complete our full assessment, at present, there is currently no evidence that any customer data has been compromised. There is currently no impact to TfL services and we are working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre to respond to the incident.”

A spokesperson the NCSC told us: “We are working with Transport for London, alongside law enforcement partners, to fully understand the impact of an incident.”

According to reports, backroom systems at the organization’s corporate headquarters have been affected, and staff were asked to work from home if possible.

Andrew Brown, managing director and co-owner of software developer Propel Tech, said that backroom systems being “targeted highlights vulnerabilities that could have had far-reaching consequences.

“A successful breach could have led to a disruption in service — the tube alone reached 4 million journeys a day at the end of last year — that could’ve brought the city to a standstill this morning, not to mention data breaches on a massive scale.”

He added: “It’s clear from the decision to ask employees to work remotely that there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Coincidentally, the sign-in page for Oyster and Contactless, used to make payments for journeys on the TfL network, has been pulled offline in the name of maintenance. ®

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