The software we use is older than me, and some of the hardware is older than my dad,\u201d says Siddharth*. He is one of a team fighting a daily battle to sustain ancient IT infrastructure at Thames Water.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the defences are breached. Thames, the UK\u2019s largest water and waste treatment company, is on a \u201cknife-edge\u201d according to sources, with its resilience in doubt because it depends on an array of creaking \u2013 often Victorian \u2013 infrastructure.<\/p>\n
While plenty of attention has been paid to its pipes, trunk mains and sewage overflows, less well understood is another big problem: its computer systems. Some IT systems date back to the 1980s, and have long been declared obsolete.<\/p>\n
According to sources who spoke to the Guardian, the systems are so antiquated they have been easy for cybercriminals to attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardware really is properly falling apart in front of your eyes,\u201d says Siddharth, who is in his 20s. \u201cWe\u2019ve been keeping machines going by using parts from similar old ones, once those give up the ghost. But we\u2019ve run out of our stores. We\u2019re not just holding things together with tape and glue. We\u2019re actually unable to turn things off, because we find we can\u2019t turn them on again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an age of heightened risk, with espionage and attacks on critical national infrastructure reaching news heights, Thames and other companies\u2019 vulnerabilities are causing increased concern within Whitehall and beyond. With 16 million customers across London and Thames Valley relying on it, they fear the repercussions from a serious breach or systems failure.<\/p>\n
The controversies around Thames\u2019s finances as dividends piled up and its debt burden ballooned, as well as wider criticism of water companies\u2019 sewage treatment overflows, have often crowded out more detailed examination of its operations.<\/p>\n
Read the Full Story Here<\/p>\n
Source: Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The software we use is older than me, and some of the hardware is older than my dad,\u201d says Siddharth*. He is one of a team fighting a daily battle to sustain ancient IT infrastructure at Thames Water. Sometimes the defences are breached. Thames, the UK\u2019s largest water and waste treatment company, is on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n