The TTC says it has been the victim of a ransomware attack that has shut down vital communications systems throughout the organization.
In a press release late Friday, the TTC said the incident did not cause “significant” disruptions in service and that “there is no risk to public safety or employees.”
However, the attack appears to have been wide-ranging and affected multiple elements of the organization.
The agency said it could not provide a timeline for when the outages would be resolved.
As of Friday night, the Vision system used to communicate with vehicle operators was not working, forcing the agency to use a backup radio system.
The following vehicle information on the platform screens, planning applications and on the TTC website was not available, as were Wheel-Trans reservations online.
Even the TTC’s internal email system was offline.
The agency said it was canceling a planned closure of a portion of the Line 1 subway scheduled for Saturday to ensure it had enough staff available to support normal service if communication problems are not resolved.
“The full scope of the attack is being investigated and the TTC is working with cybersecurity and law enforcement experts on this matter,” the agency said in its press release.
Ransomware is a type of software that hackers use to encrypt an organization’s files. They then demand that the organization pay a ransom to unlock the files.
TTC spokesman Stuart Green did not respond to questions about whether the agency had received a demand for payment and whether it intended to pay.
“I cannot comment on the status of the ransom demand,” he said in a text message.
According to the press release, the TTC detected unusual activity on the network Thursday night and began investigating.
“The impact was minimal” until noon on Friday, “when the hackers expanded their attack on network services.”
Reference-www.thestar.com