Teen hackers jailed over £29m TfL cyber attack

Two hackers who livestreamed themselves carrying out a cyber attack on Transport For London that forced the organisation to "pull th plug" on its own systems have been jailed. Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers were both still teenagers when they conducted an “extremely serious hack” into TfL’s online network that could have caused “catastrophic damage” to its systems, between 31 August and 3 September 2024. The “multi-day intrusion” resulted in all of TfL’s more than 27,000 employees being forced to attend an office in person to reset their passwords. During a two-day sentencing hearing, prosecutors said the hackers “could have shut out and shut down TfL completely” given that they eventually obtained the “highest privileged access” within the system, referred to as “the keys to the kingdom”. Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday, Jubair, now 20 and of Bow, east London, and Flowers, 18 and from Walsall, were each jailed for five years and six months. The judge, Mr Justice Turner, told the pair: “I’m satisfied that your actions were primarily motivated by selfish bravado, heedless of the consequences on others.” The defendants have been linked to the group known as Scattered Spider, and used that name in communication with each other during the attack, the court heard. TfL claims that, along with £29m worth of damage caused by disruption to services and operational work, the incident cost £10m in lost income. Data from the Oyster refund system was accessed, contactless systems were delayed, and applications for Oyster photocards for children and young people were closed down. The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-... SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos:    / @skynewscourts   Follow Sky News on Twitter:   / skynews   and   / skynewsbreak   Like us on Facebook:   / skynews   Follow us on Instagram:   / skynews   For more content go to http://news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-n... Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...