Who Raided Tesco — and How — Still Unclear

Across the U.K., the questions surrounding Tesco’s cybersecurity breach remain: Whodunit — and how?

At the moment of this writing, there are precious few answers.

As has been widely reported, the thefts from the bank — stretching across roughly 20,000 accounts — remain shrouded in mystery as to just how they occurred.

Reuters said Tuesday that the cybertheft has been viewed as unprecedented in the country, and Andrew Bailey, who serves as chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told the Treasury Select parliamentary committee that “it’s too early to give a comprehensive account of what the root causes are” of the thefts, which have been tied to debit transactions from online accounts. In the meantime, Tesco has said that reimbursements will be done by the end of today.

Separately, the newswire reported that the U.K.’s National Crime Agency is in the midst of a criminal investigation into the thefts. That agency is working alongside the National Cyber Security Center in the investigation. Tesco had on Monday halted online transactions tied to current accounts. But in the meantime, said Reuters, full online access to services would not be restored until the cybersecurity breach had been fully explored and explained.