MPs have demanded an explanation from junior transport minister Tineke Huizinga into how the conclusion of an independent report on security problems with the new public transport smart card came to be altered.

The report, commissioned after hackers broke the card’s security codes, was drawn up by researchers from London University’s Royal Holloway unit.
According to newspaper Trouw, the original version of the report concluded that the chip in the card should be replaced by a newer and more secure version. But in the report which was given to MPs, the conclusion states that measures to improve the current chip’s security should be looked into. This matches advice given by Dutch research institute TNO, joint developer of the system.
Trouw says the change was made after both the TNO and its development partner TLS had seen the report. ‘That is a crucial change,’ GroenLinks MP Wijnand Duyvendak told the paper. Last week ministers agreed to proceed with the original chip.
Royal Hollow research leader Keith Mayes told Trouw that the report had not been interfered with.