Digital taxi service offline after cyberattack


A taxi-booking service in Australia has been forced to shut down after a cyberattack, leaving disabled and child passengers temporarily stranded. Frustrated users have vented their displeasure on Twitter following the announcement on the social media platform.

Another day, another business compromised by threat actors. The latest victim is Black and White Cabs, a digital ride-booking service based in the Australian state of Queensland that prides itself on making taxi bookings “easy.”

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Not right now, it would seem. “We’ve been informed Black and White Cabs’ taxi booking system is down this morning – which will impact school transport pick-ups and likely affect wheelchair-accessible taxi bookings,” announced Transport and Main Roads Queensland on Twitter.

Disgruntled users were quick to vent their frustration on the platform. “Hacked like Optus & Medibank! Driver’s license and details along with many customers in the hands of hackers!” claimed one user.

But, talking to local broadcaster ABC, Black and White’s managing director Greg Webb denied that any such data had been compromised.

"Our ongoing investigation continues to show no evidence that any customer data has been accessed from our IT environment," he said. "We take the protection of customer information very seriously, and this remains a high priority."

He added that extra security measures had been enforced to further ensure data safety but did not specify when the ride-booking service would be back up and running.