London’s transport network has been hit by an IT crisis for years, with commuters having trouble accessing their computers and even finding the time to open a website.
The problem, as it has been dubbed, is a result of a lack of a standard for IT equipment and the growing tendency of companies to operate using outdated software.
As a result, Londoners have had to resort to the use of private services to access their data, like Google, Dropbox, Microsoft and others.
But that doesn’t mean that the problems are over yet.
A report by IT consultant firm GDC, which examined the situation for the Telegraph, reveals that some of the biggest companies operating in London don’t have a standard set up for how they handle their IT infrastructure, leaving them at risk of having to spend a lot of money and effort in order to fix them.
The report was commissioned by the IT industry group IT Supermarket, which is calling on governments to help fix the situation by creating a standard that would allow companies to hire the same experts to deal with their IT issues.
“In some cases, the problem is that the people who are actually using your technology are the ones who are really doing the work to make sure that the system is running the way that it should be,” said GDC’s director of research, David McAlpine.
“So they are often the ones doing the IT stuff.
“It’s not a new issue” The problem of outdated software has been a long-standing problem for the Tube. “
The problem is if you don’t set up a standard, then it becomes a case of doing the thing that is cheaper to do and easier to do, because the cost of it is less.”
“It’s not a new issue” The problem of outdated software has been a long-standing problem for the Tube.
In 2013, the Metropolitan police reported that it was a common occurrence for computers to get infected with malware, which was able to take over systems and run malicious code.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s IT team also warned in 2014 that “there is a risk that the software on your network could be infected with malicious code”.
It was also reported that many of the Tube stations had servers running outdated software, with some claiming that they had no ability to repair the system because the systems weren’t set-up properly.
The London Underground was hit with a major IT hack in the summer of 2016, after it was revealed that it had installed an outdated version of its IT infrastructure.
After the Metro station system was compromised, the operator announced that all of the stations would have to be re-instated using the latest versions of the software.
“We’ve got a huge infrastructure of IT systems,” said John O’Connor, a London Underground spokesperson.
“That’s why we’ve been working on this process of making sure that we’ve managed all of our systems to ensure that they’re operating as efficiently and as safely as possible.” “
But it was only in 2018 that the Metropolitan Police and the Met’s IT department, which manages all the stations’ computers, agreed to develop a new standard for dealing with outdated software on its network. “
That’s why we’ve been working on this process of making sure that we’ve managed all of our systems to ensure that they’re operating as efficiently and as safely as possible.”
But it was only in 2018 that the Metropolitan Police and the Met’s IT department, which manages all the stations’ computers, agreed to develop a new standard for dealing with outdated software on its network.
“This is something that we have been working through since we’ve come to the conclusion that we need to look at this,” said Mr O’Brien.
“And we’ve decided that it’s important that this standard is put in place and it’s done by a central body.”
The Metropolitan police and Met’s team have been trying to find a way to implement the standard for a few years now, but so far have not been successful.
“I think the issue is it’s not something that’s new for us,” said a Metropolitan police spokesperson.
He said the team had to “think through how this will be achieved”.
“It can’t be achieved in a matter of days,” he said.
“There’s an enormous amount of effort that needs to go into it.”
This is where the London Underground comes in.
Mr Ollerton added that the team is now “considering how to build on the work we’ve done so far.”
The Met has set up an IT task force called IT Supermall, which will take a more hands-on approach to IT issues, but he admitted that the agency had not had the chance to properly study the issue before starting.
“To get the right information about how to address these issues we’re going to need a lot more of an IT team than we have now,” he added.
“At this stage, we have not had a lot to go on and there’s no plan to do that yet.”
What is the solution?
The Met and the London Transport Authority have a number of ways they
