The Auckland Transport (AT) transportation authority in New Zealand is dealing with a widespread outage caused by a cyber-incident, impacting a wide range of customer services.
AT is the government-owned regional transportation authority in the Auckland region, responsible for public transport through ferries, buses, and trains and for designing and building roads and other infrastructure.
The company has announced that it has experienced issues with its HOP services (integrated ticketing and fares system) as a cyber-incident has impacted parts of its network.
According to the reports, the following AT services have been impacted as a result of the attack:
- Online top-ups, as well as other AT HOP services using MyAT HOP on the AT website.
- Existing auto top-ups work, but there’s a delay in the payment processing.
- Ticket and top-up machines are only accepting cash payments.
- Transactions using Eftpos/credit cards are unavailable. Some machines may not be working.
- AT customer service centers will have limited functionality and may only be able to accept cash payments.
- HOP retailers cannot top up HOP cards or process other AT HOP services like loading concessions.
According to a spokesperson for AT, they have indications they were targeted by ransomware but the investigations are still ongoing.
They stated that there will be leniency for passengers with empty HOP cards, and traveling using AT’s busses, ferries, and trains should continue unaffected.
In response to the cyberattack, Auckland Transport has activated its security protocols and is working with external experts to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. It is expected that AT’s website and HOP services might return to normal operations early next week.
No major ransomware groups have yet assumed responsibility for the attack on AT’s systems.
Image Credits : NFCW
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