Hacking the JFK Airport Taxi Dispatch System
Two men have been convicted of hacking the taxi dispatch system at the JFK airport. This enabled them to reorder the taxis on the list; they charged taxi drivers $10 to cut the line.
Comments
What happens when everyone pays the $10 to cut the line?
When everyone is a VIP then no one is a VIP.
Peter • December 23, 2022 9:21 AM
I read the story. But I wonder how they got away with it?
I mean the drivers that did not participate must have seen this going on? If you see someone who arrived later in the cue leave earlier than you that must raise questions?
And how did they promote their ‘service’? That also must have been noticable.
Erdem Memisyazici • December 23, 2022 10:04 AM
How do two random dudes get access to “cyberweapons” so easily? Everyone’s a hacker these days.
Clive Robinson • December 23, 2022 10:13 AM
@ Peter, ALL,
Re : Official Que Jumping.
“I mean the drivers that did not participate must have seen this going on? If you see someone who arrived later in the cue leave earlier than you that must raise questions?”
Err probably not, as there was probably a short journey move up the que system in place for “fairness”.
I can’t say how it works theses days but two decades ago at London Heathrow Airport, the only taxis alowed to make non pre-aranged pick ups were “London Black Cabs”.
There was an in built assumption that all the cabs would go up the Westway into central London with either business folk or tourists staying in central London hotels.
What the issue was were people like me who lived on the airport side, outside or just inside of Greater London.
The rules alowed a black cab driver to refuse a passanger who was outside greater london but not inside. This caused issues so a “short journy voucher” system was implemented.
Basically any driver taking a fare within a few miles of the airport got a voucher that alowed them back at the head of the que when they returned from the srop off.
Some drivers “gamed the system based on dlight arival times. That is at a slack time they would take a short journy to get a voucher. Then hang back untill the Transalantic flights arived and then present the voucher thus getting head of the que privileges at the time most likely for City bound vig tipping Americans to be ariving…
Eventually the vouchers got a time stamp added, but if the voucher was accepted or not fell to a single individual on duty policing it…
It’s not difficult to see what happened next, and as most of the drivers were of the “If you can not beat them, join them mentality” it was not surprising that they joined in rather than report it…
modem phonemes • December 23, 2022 10:25 AM
The economics of black markets are always instructive.
A kind of primitive auction scheme. Perhaps it could be turned into a legal, full scale auction, they way internet ads work.
Just “a modest suggestion”.
Ted • December 23, 2022 11:32 AM
Two years is a long time to be running a “Hacking Scheme” in the Dispatch System.
The recently indicted US citizens had sent $100,000 back to their Russian conspirators.
In return, the US men may receive up to 10 years in prison. Not the best trade offer, though there must have been some good moments.
Abayev and Leymen had tried various methods to gain access to the Dispatch System. This included bribing someone to insert a flash drive into connected computers, obtaining unauthorized access thru a WiFi connection, and stealing tablets connected to the Dispatch system.
I don’t know what the working conditions are like up in New York, but it’s amazing many taxi drivers were willing to wait hours for their next fare.
Fazal Majid • December 24, 2022 3:53 PM
Reminds me of the gangsters who took control of Las Vegas’ phone network, and silently redirected prostitutes’ phone numbers to those of others who worked for them. They were aided by the abysmal actual secutiy of most telcos, and some suspect of actual backdoors deliberately left by CALEA software vendors.
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Anonymous • December 23, 2022 8:58 AM
This sounds like CLEAR’s business model