London’s public transport system, Transport for London (TfL), was recently subject to a serious cyberattack by a hacker. TfL detected suspicious activity on its systems on Sunday, September 1st and immediately notified its users. However, the extent of the incident became clearer in a second email sent on September 12th.
Hacker accessed highly sensitive information
According to TfL, the attack resulted in the compromise of sensitive information such as bank account numbers and branch codes for around 5,000 users. This information was used to refund Oyster cards (a public transport card used in London). In addition, some customers’ names, contact details, emails and home addresses were also compromised.
Due to the incident, new applications for Oyster photocards and Zip cards have been temporarily suspended, and some live Tube arrival information is still not available.
TfL’s technology director Shashi Verma said: “As a precautionary measure, we will be contacting our affected customers as soon as possible. We will be informing them about the support we can provide and the actions they can take.” He also said that they are constantly monitoring access to their systems to ensure only authorised people can log in.
The most shocking development came on September 5. The National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested a 17-year-old teenager in Walsall, West Midlands, in connection with the cyber attack. He was questioned under the Computer Misuse Act and later released on bail.
This incident has once again highlighted the importance of digital security, with experts warning users to use strong passwords, beware of suspicious emails and be more careful than ever when sharing personal information.
