A 17-year-old teenager has been arrested by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) for carrying out a cyberattack on Transport for London (TFL). The alleged hacker was arrested on September 5 on Computer Misuse Act charges and has since been released on bail. The NCA hasn’t revealed the suspect’s identity but stated that it’s a male teenager from the town of Walsall.
The cyberattack on the London transport authority on September 1 didn’t affect ongoing operations. However, it took several systems down, including live arrival information, journey history for contactless payments, and applications for its new Oyster photo cards.
TFL also couldn’t issue refunds for incomplete pay-as-you-go journies, with a number of its employees having limited access to the system. Although the initial statement claimed that there wasn’t any evidence of a data breach, TFL has since updated its statement, adding that “certain customer data has been accessed.”
This includes some customer names and contact details, including email addresses and home addresses where provided. Some Oyster card data, including bank account and sort code numbers, for around 5,000 customers has also been accessed. As a preventive measure, the authorities will contact affected customers directly as soon as possible to offer support and guidance.
An investigation to assess the full damage is underway in partnership with the NCA and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC). Deputy Director Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said, “We have been working at pace to support Transport for London following a cyber attack on their network and to identify the criminal actors responsible.”
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