All Oyster cardholders in Londonwill need to reset their passwords to regain access to their accounts. This is a precautionary measure to prevent attacks on the travelling public. Previously, 1200 cardholders were compromised after their passwords were stolen.
Oyster is a popular travel card that can help locals and tourists travel around the English capital using public transport (buses, trams, trains or coaches). Overall, it saves people time as it supports contactless payments and is particularly convenient as it is much cheaper than buying single tickets each time you need them.
TfL discovered the breach in August, following a series of hacking attacks. At the time, hackers targeted 1,200 Oyster account holders and managed to gain direct control over them. Months after the incident, TfL decided to ask every account holder to reset their passwords as a precautionary measure. TfL’s CTO said: “This is a precautionary measure due to previously reported cases where a very small number of accounts were accessed through malicious data use and originated from non-TfL sites .”
Customers must now use at least eight characters, as well as a combination of numbers and uppercase letters, for their new accounts, using a new and unique passphrase that should not be recorded anywhere.
Since there are no alternatives to the Oyster service in London, it is advisable to use it responsibly and create accounts that do not extend to the entire online presence, but are intended exclusively for their specific purpose.
