After nearly a week of busy schedules, Transport for London is apparently recovering from the latest cyber attack. The service announced password resets for thousands of its employees as part of its remediation strategy following the cybersecurity incident.
Transport for London cyber attack affects customer data
Earlier this month, Transport for London (TfL) disclosed a serious cyber attack that affected its internal systems. Initially, not many details about the incident were available. However, as the service proceeded with the investigation, the true nature of the attack became clear.
In particular, TfL suffered an attack on its internal systems, which affected its online services and refund processing. TfL’s customer support operations were affected as a result of these disruptions.
Following the incident, TfL formally disclosed the security breach via its website, revealing unauthorized access to some customers’ data. As mentioned in Updatethe breach likely affected the personal and financial details of some users.
This includes some customer names and contact details, including email addresses and home addresses where provided.
Some Oyster card refund data may be accessed. This may include bank account numbers and configuration codes for a limited number of users (approximately 5,000).
In addition to the public disclosure, TfL also suspended some online services as it carried out corrective and remedial measures in relation to the breach. However, normal operations of the service were not affected.
Additionally, as a precaution, Transport for London also reset passwords to secure the accounts of its 30,000 employees. That’s because the service also noticed that the breach affected official employee details. According to statement By Shashi Verma, CTO of TfL,
Our investigation has identified some associates and access to customer data. In terms of partner data, we believe this is limited to directory details (TfL email addresses, job titles and employee numbers). Our investigation to date does not suggest any other data, such as bank details, date of birth or home address etc. has been accessed.
On expert advice, we have deliberately reconfigured each partner’s OneLondon account. This means you will not be able to access your email account, platform and other applications.
17-year-old accused arrested
As authorities continued to investigate the security breach, they were eventually able to track down the culprit. Interestingly, the attacker turned out to be a 17-year-old youth.
According to one statement The 17-year-old was arrested on September 5 by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).Th2024. Later, the suspect was released on bail after questioning by the NCA. The true intention and motivation of the suspect Attack on transport service still remain unclear.
Transport for London is the UK local government service responsible for managing London’s transport network, which includes almost all major modes of transport, including the rail network, river services, and road services such as buses, Taxisand trams.
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