Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority officials say they plan to focus on improving security throughout the transit system after a classified inspector general’s report concluded that the agency remains vulnerable to hacks and attacks that could imperil safety and day-to-day operations.
That audit was presented to Metro’s board of directors in a closed meeting late last month, but the report and takeaways are being kept secret because of the risk of tipping off potential criminals to existing weaknesses at the transit agency.
“By its nature, such an audit in the wrong hands could expose vulnerabilities and thereby undermine our shared goal of making [Metro’s] IT environment even more secure,” Metro Inspector General Geoffrey A. Cherrington said in a statement. “For that reason, we have made an exception to our standard practice of posting audits to our website, and this one will be withheld from release.”