Two young men have been jailed after they admitted hacking into Transport for London’s cyber network.
Thalha Jubair, 20, and Owen Flowers,18, used the dark web to gain access to the transport network’s systems across several days in August and September 2024 while both were still teenagers.
The attack, which lasted for several days, cost TfL £29m in damages from disruption to services and operational work and affected its services for months.
It also meant all of TfL’s more than 27,000 employees were forced to attend an office to reset their passwords.
Judge Mr Justice Turner jailed Jubair and Flowers – who are linked to the notorious Scattered Spider global hacking gang – for five years and six months at Woolwich Crown Court today.
They pleaded guilty to the attack as they were about to face trial last month, having initially denied the charges.
The hackers’ actions were “primarily motivated by selfish bravado”, the judge said.
Addressing Flowers, he said: “You clearly had, and have, a very sophisticated knowledge of the means by which hacking may be perpetrated to strongest effect.”
Chief crown prosecutor Lionel Idan said both defendants showed “a staggering disregard for the consequences of their actions”, as their attack forced TfL to “pull the plug” on their own network.
