Teen Hackers Jailed After Live Streaming Cyber Attack on TfL
Teen Hackers Jailed After Live Streaming Cyber Attack on TfL 🚨
Two men who carried out a cyber-attack that crippled Transport For London (TfL) when they were teenagers have both been sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, and Thalha Jubair, 20, from east London, pleaded guilty in June to carrying out the hack in 2024. They were described as computer-obsessed loners who executed the hack as part of the cyber crime collective known as Scattered Spider.
The cyber-attack disrupted TfL’s online services for months, stole the personal data of millions of people, and left all 27,000 TfL employees needing to reset their passwords in person. Woolwich Crown Court heard that the criminals streamed their 16-hour long cyber-attack online.
They hacked into the capital’s transport authority at 17:00 on 31 August. Jubair and Flowers gained access to the data by tricking a phone help desk worker into resetting the password of an employee they were impersonating. The database is still being shared in criminal groups and contains the details of as many as 10 million TfL customers. TfL estimates the financial impact of the hack was £29 million, in addition to an estimated £10 million in lost income.
The Scattered Spider group has been linked to dozens of other cyber-attacks, including on retailers Marks and Spencer and the Co-op. In the last two years, young men and boys have been arrested for Scattered Spider hacks in the UK, US, Spain, and Finland.
During the arrest raid, investigators caught Flowers in the act of hacking two US healthcare providers. Messages he sent showed him joking about the hacks potentially “killing a 90-year-old on life support”. Police also seized cryptocurrency holdings worth around £1 million. Jubair had previously received a Youth Rehabilitation Order for hacking with the Lapsus$ cyber crime group, which targeted major companies including Nvidia and BT. He is also wanted in the US in connection with cyber crimes against 47 US-based victims, which allegedly led to $115 million paid in ransoms to Jubair and his associates.
While in prison awaiting trial, both Jubair and Flowers were discovered with contraband phones. Recovered messages show the men continuing to discuss and coordinate future cyber-attacks. NCA deputy director Paul Foster, head of its National Cyber Crime Unit, said the case highlighted the challenges posed by home-grown hackers. Cyber security analyst Allison Nixon stated that it would do little to deter young boys from cyber crime, emphasizing that policymakers need to address this as a violent youth gang problem, with a gang culture that idolizes the destruction of society and maximizing victim harm.
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