Thames Water’s IT ‘falling apart’ and is hit by cyber-attacks, sources claim

Exclusive: Company relies on obsolete tech and there are troubling security gaps, Guardian investigation suggests

“The software we use is older than me, and some of the hardware is older than my dad,” 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’s largest water and waste treatment company, is on a “knife-edge” according to sources, with its resilience in doubt because it depends on an array of creaking – often Victorian – infrastructure.