Two Men Allegedly Hacked JFK's Taxi Dispatch System With Russian Help
upstart writes:
It was all to let drivers skip the taxi wait line:
Would you pay a few bucks to skip an interminably long taxi wait line at the airport? That's essentially what Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman did, according to the DOJ, except they focused on taxi drivers. The two men, both from Queens, have been arrested for hacking into JFK's taxi dispatch system with the help of Russian nationals. From September 2019 and September 2021, they charged drivers $10 to jump ahead of JFK's taxi queue. Typically, those cars are sent out depending on their order of arrival.
According to the DOJ's indictment, both men explored a variety of ways to break into JFK's taxi dispatch system, from bribing people to insert a malware-filled flash drive into a computer, stealing tablets and logging into the system over Wi-Fi. Abayev at one point messaged one of the Russian hackers: "I know that the Pentagon is being hacked[.]. So, can't we hack the taxi industry[?]"
From the DOJ press release:
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: "As alleged in the indictment, these two defendants - with the help of Russian hackers - took the Port Authority for a ride. For years, the defendants' hacking kept honest cab drivers from being able to pick up fares at JFK in the order in which they arrived. Now, thanks to this Office's teamwork with the Port Authority, these defendants are facing serious criminal charges for their alleged cybercrimes."
[...] At various times between November 2019 and November 2020, ABAYEV and LEYMAN, working with others, successfully hacked the Dispatch System. They used their unauthorized access to alter the Dispatch System and move specific taxis to the front of the line, thereby allowing drivers of those taxis to skip other taxi drivers waiting in the line. ABAYEV and LEYMAN charged taxi drivers $10 each time they were advanced to the front of the line. Taxi drivers learned that they could skip the taxi line by paying $10 to members of the Hacking Scheme through word of mouth, and members of the Hacking Scheme offered some taxi drivers waivers of the $10 fee in exchange for recruiting other taxi drivers to pay the $10 fee to skip the taxi line. [...]
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.