Teen hackers are \u201chighly skilled with computers and capable of wreaking havoc\u201d, says prosecutor
\n london
\nTwo British hackers behind a 2024 cyberattack on London\u2019s public transport body which cost \u00a329 million ($39.16 million) to fix were each sentenced on Thursday to five and a half years in jail.
\nThalha Jubair, 20, and Owen Flowers, 18, pleaded guilty last month to hacking Transport for London (TfL), which had been blamed on hacking collective \u201cScattered Spider\u201d.
\nJubair and Flowers hacked TfL between August 31 and September 3, 2024, working up to 16 hours a day \u2014 Jubair from his parents\u2019 flat in east London, Flowers in his grandmother\u2019s home in central England \u2013 after gaining access to TfL systems.
\nJubair broadcast a livestream of the hack which Flowers watched, with the video found on Flowers\u2019 laptop providing key evidence, prosecutor Mark Fenhalls said.
\nThe pair could have \u201cshut down TfL completely\u201d and the attack was stopped only when TfL pulled the plug on their computer systems, Fenhalls said. The damage caused took six months to fix.
\nFlowers also admitted conspiring with others to hack two not-for-profit health systems in the United States just days after targeting TfL, with those attacks stopping \u201conly because he was arrested and literally caught in the act\u201d, Fenhalls added.
\nFlowers continued to attempt hacks from prison after his arrest, Fenhalls said, with devices showing search terms and attempts to access domains linked to the Crown Prosecution Service and the prison he was being held in.
\nSentencing both Jubair and Flowers to five and a half years in prison, Judge Mark Turner said he accepted they were \u201cprimarily motivated by selfish bravado\u201d.
\nAttack linked to \u2018scattered spider\u2019
\nBritish authorities have previously said a hacking collective known as Scattered Spider was responsible for the attack on TfL, with multiple reports also tying the group to an attack on retailer Marks & Spencer.
\nProsecutors said on Wednesday it was a term coined by a cybersecurity firm and that Scattered Spider was considered more a pattern of behaviour than a defined group although Jubair and Flowers said they had links with it.
\nJubair and Flowers were 18 and 17 when they targeted TfL but, Fenhalls said, they were already experienced hackers, \u201chighly skilled with computers and capable of wreaking havoc\u201d.
\nJubair was convicted in 2023 of hacking and blackmailing chipmaker Nvidia as part of the Lapsus$ hacking group and was also sentenced for stalking two young women, including \u201cswatting\u201d one by trying to send armed police to her home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teen hackers are \u201chighly skilled with computers and capable of wreaking havoc\u201d, says prosecutor london Two British hackers behind a 2024 cyberattack on London\u2019s public transport body which cost \u00a329 million ($39.16 million) to fix were each sentenced on Thursday to five and a half years in jail. Thalha Jubair, 20, and Owen Flowers, 18, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n