Two hackers have been jailed after forcing Transport for London to “pull the plug” on their own systems and costing the organisation £29 million in losses.
Thalha Jubair, 20, from Bow and Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, conducted an “extremely serious hack” on TfL’s online network which could have caused “catastrophic damage” to their systems between August 31 and September 3 2024.
The “multi-day intrusion” meant all of TfL’s more than 27,000 employees were forced to attend an office in person to reset their passwords.
In a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the prosecution said the hackers “could have shut out and shut down TfL completely” as they eventually had the “highest privileged access” in the system, known as “the keys to the kingdom”.
Mark Fenhalls KC, prosecuting, said: “These two young men are highly skilled with computers and capable of wreaking havoc and you may think wholly indifferent to the consequences for the public and the potential suffering and costs to others.”
• Subscribe to ITV News on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2lOHmNj
• Get breaking news and more stories at http://www.itv.com/news
Follow ITV News on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@itvnews?lang=en
Follow ITV News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itvnews/
Follow ITV News on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itvnews/
Follow ITV News on X: https://twitter.com/itvnews
