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Teen hackers jailed for Transport for London cyberattack costing £39m
The attack, carried out from August 31 to September 3, 2024, left TfL unable to process Oyster and contactless payments and disrupted dial-a-ride bookings for disabled passengers.
Two teenage hackers have been sentenced to five and a half years each for a cyberattack on Transport for London, a case that prosecutors said cost the transit agency £39 million, according to the Guardian Business.
The outlet reported that the hackers stole data belonging to millions of commuters, left Londoners out of pocket, and forced about 27,000 TfL staff to reset their passwords. While the main tube and bus networks were not directly affected, the dial-a-ride service for disabled passengers could not process bookings for a period.
Guardian Business said TfL was also unable to process payments on its Oyster and contactless apps and could not register Oyster cards to customer accounts following the breach.
The court was told the attack used high privileged access, including a “domain admin” account described in court as the “keys to the kingdom,” and the pair were stopped only after TfL effectively shut down the compromised systems, the Guardian Business reported.