Article: Oyster cards sabotaged.

[ozbob]

For information ...

Oyster cards 'sabotaged'
The Express
July 14, 2008

Jane Wharton

Travel chaos fear as hacker blocks tickets

TENS of thousands of commuters were facing chaos today after a disgruntled
employee is believed to have rendered a high-tech payment system useless.

The worker is said to have hacked into the Oyster card computer system -
used by - millions of Londoners on public transport - on Saturday morning.

It was inoperable for four hours, but around 60,000 cards used during that
time have since stopped working.

Transport for London is thought to have lost millions of pounds in revenue
during the alleged sabotage. Oyster cards are used as payment on the
capital's buses, Tube trains and Docklands Light Railway. They are billed
as an easy and cheaper way of buying and using tickets on the transport
network.

Passengers touch their card onto a "reader" on entry and exit to a station
or when boarding a bus.

A total of 17 million cards have been issued since the scheme began in 2003
and around 7 million are currently in circulation.

Last night a source said a disgruntled employee hacked through the firewall
on the computer system early on Saturday.

The fault lasted from 5.30am until 10.30am and rendered cards inoperable
for that time. But several bus routes across London were still unable to
read cards much later in the day.

Ticket barriers had to be left open while the problem was solved to allow
passengers to use the transport network without any delays.

Machines used to place funds on the Oyster cards were also affected by the
fault. Any passenger who entered the Underground or DLR system while it was
down but finished their journey after it was repaired, may be charged the
maximum fare. They are set to be given an automatic refund tomorrow.

A spokesperson for Transport for London said around 60,000 cards had
stopped working as a result of the technical problem.

Around 15,000 have already been replaced but commuters are set to face
problems on their return to work today.

Last night the organisation apologised and said people with a nonworking
card could get a replacement from Tube stations.

However, passengers using the Freedom Pass and Young Persons Oyster card
need to re-apply through their local authority.

TfL said they were investigating the cause and could not comment on reports
that the problems had been caused by sabotage.

A spokesperson said: "Due to a technical problem with the Oyster card
computer system, card readers across the network were not accepting cards
during the morning of Saturday July 12.

"All passengers who incurred a maximum fare on Saturday will be given an
automatic refund from Tuesday. They do not need to take any action."

[Derwan]

Sounds like a typical day with the Go Card. 

[bladesplace]

Sounds like a typical day with the Go Card. 

Except the card issuer is automatically refunding maximum fares that may have been charged AND is replacing faulty cards on the spot! 

[stephenk]

The Oyster Cards refund system is pretty effective. Rarely any queues to get through on the phone, and money is instantly refunded to either credit card or oyster card (when next swiped at selected location).

[ozbob]

Yes, go card refunds should be the same.  It is appalling the wait that some folks have had, months!!

Maybe we should call the 'go card' the 'moreton bay bug card'  truncate to 'bug card' for routine use.  Maybe it might improve!

LOL

[ozbob]

More Oyster issues ....  From the London Guardian

London tube hit by second Oyster card failure in weeks

London tube hit by second Oyster card failure in weeks
The Guardian
July 26, 2008

Alexandra Topping

Thousands of commuters got a free ride yesterday as the Oyster card system
failed on the London Underground for the second time this month. Problems
with the pay-as-you-go system meant that barriers had to be kept open
throughout the busiest period in the morning at a cost of tens of thousands
of pounds in lost fares to Transport for London (TfL).

The problem with the system - which allows passengers to touch a card on to
an electronic reader when entering and leaving stations - occurred at
around 5.30am. A similar glitch two weeks ago resulted in the corruption of
40,000 cards, which had to be replaced. TfL said no such corruption had
occurred yesterday.

TfL blamed the fault on contractors Transys. "We believe that this problem,
like the recent issue, resulted from incorrect data being sent out by our
contractor, Transys," it said.

It confirmed that the problem had affected only pay-as-you-go cards. Oyster
card readers on buses and trams were not affected.

TfL said it would automatically refund any passengers charged the maximum
￡4 fare as a result of not being able to touch in and out at the beginning
and end of their journeys.

Around 500,000 people travel on the Underground during the peak morning
hours and yesterday's technical fault is estimated to have cost "somewhere
in the low ￡100,000s", TfL said, adding: "We expect the bill to be met by
the contractors, not Londoners or TfL."

Transys said the technical problem had been identified, and steps were
being taken to ensure it did not happen again.

Valerie Shawcross, who chairs the London Assembly transport committee,
said: "It's is unbelievable that this has happened for the second time in a
month. This is a simple, daily operation that has gone seriously wrong at a
significant cost, causing disruption to thousands of commuters. If it is
happens again TlF should seriously consider closing the contract."

Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of
Economics, said the consequences of another failure could have a
significant impact on the public perception of London's transport system.
"Transys just need to get a grip, sort it out and make sure that it doesn't
happen again," he said. "If it keeps happening, that then calls the
integrity of the system into question and people will start to worry about
other issues, like security. There have already been fears about data being
corrupted and if we continue to see those type of issues we may see a very
negative public reaction."

Thanks for the alert to this Rookwood Central!

[bladesplace]

And once again, TfL is able to automatically refund the penalty occurred with no interaction or even acknowledgment from penalized customers.

Meanwhile, in the so-called 'Smart State', us poor GoCard users have to call and keep on fighting to get our refunds when faulty equipment fails. And we usually end up getting told it's our fault anyway.

Grrr... 

Cheers

MJ

[haakon]

MIT released some presentation slides regarding deficient security in the Massachusetts subway system. It touches on the Mifare Classic cards and it's design faults.

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N30/subway/Defcon_Presentation.pdf