The banking arm of the supermarket chain has announced that it had experienced “unprecedented” attack on its online accounts a few days ago, which resulted in the loss of £2.5 million. Tesco Bank also revised down the number of accounts, from which money was stolen, to 9,000 and assured that banking services had been restored for all customers.
The bank issued the latest update on the situation just a few hours after the Financial Conduct Authority told MPs that the incident was unprecedented in the United Kingdom and regarded as serious. In the meantime, Tesco Bank apologized to its customers for any inconvenience it caused, saying that its first priority was protecting and looking after the customers. The bank has already refunded all customer accounts affected by the hack and lifted the suspension of transactions so that people could use their accounts as before. The bank representatives also reassured people that none of their personal data had been compromised.
The bank works closely with the authorities and regulators in their criminal investigation, including the National Crime Agency that scrutinizes what happened at the supermarket chain’s banking arm accounting for more than 7m customers. The National Cyber Security Centre also investigated the issue and launched a criminal inquiry, while providing direct assistance to the company at their request. The agency explained that cyber-related incidents sometimes could take a lot of time to understand, given the technical complexities involved. During this period it is important that no information is revealed to general public that could interfere with the criminal investigation. So far, the agency is unaware of any wider threat to the British banking sector connected with this breach.
The Financial Conduct Authority said it was too early to know the exact cause of the breach, but it appeared to be related to debit cards. Apparently, computer hackers were looking for weaknesses and “points of entry” into banks.
There are several theories about the cause of the problem. One of them is that it was caused by an internal security breach, another – that it was the work of a foreign power. Perhaps, the breach was state-sponsored.
The bank explained that the decision to suspend some banking activities meant to protect customers from online criminal activity and described the raid as “a systematic, sophisticated attack”. The role of National Cyber Security Centre was to support the investigation, work with Tesco concerned to manage the incident, investigate the root causes, and use the obtained information to provide future guidance and policy on online security.
Meanwhile, the Information Commissioner’s Office is also looking into the situation. For example, it fined telecom company TalkTalk £400,000 a months ago for failing to stop the breach of personal data of its 157,000 customers. The members of the Treasury select committee called the attack on Tesco’s retail accounts “deeply troubling” and highlighting the crucial importance of technical security to the financial system.
