Two young men convicted over the cyber-attack that crippled Transport for London (TfL) in 2024 had long histories of cyber-offending and were both known to law enforcement bodies, the BBC has learnt.
What a shocker.
Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, and Thalha Jubair, 20, from east London, pleaded guilty on Monday to carrying out the attack. The breach disrupted TfL services for months, affected the personal data of millions of people and left all 28,000 TfL employees needing to reset their passwords in person.
It left me unable to top up my Oyster card online for a fortnight, it could only ne done at the machines in Tube stations, and I was unable to check the balance.
The BBC has discovered the authorities made frequent attempts to curb Flowers and Jubair's offending - raising questions over the effectiveness of such interventions with young cyber-criminals.
Locking the little shits up where they had no access to computers should have been the first option. not the last,
Experts have told the BBC the case also indicates that perpetrators of cyber-attacks often do not appear to understand the real world consequences of their actions.
Or could it be that they just don't care, like all criminals?
The National Crime Agency (NCA) says it highlights the need for its officers to be given additional powers.
Of course they do.
... the BBC has learned Flowers initially came to the attention of police shortly after he turned 16 years old. In October 2023 he was caught carrying out low-level cyber-crime and visited by West Midland's Regional Cyber Crime Unit prevent officers. Police say that during the visit Flowers did not engage with officers and was given a cease and desist order to deter him from further offending.
Why the soft touch?
During the investigation, NCA officers uncovered evidence that computer systems belonging to two US healthcare organisations, SSM Health and Sutter Health, had also been infiltrated and damaged. Flowers later pleaded guilty to offences relating to those hacks. He is still wanted in the US. After being charged, Flowers was released on bail under strict conditions. He breached those conditions twice, in March 2025 and May 2025.
Jubair has 22 previous convictions in total and began offending at 14 years old. He is also wanted in the US in connection with cyber-crimes that allegedly stole and extorted $87m (£66.1m) from victims.
They should just let the Americans have them both, they have no patience with this sort of thing and sentences are far more realistic.
Both Jubair and Flowers have been diagnosed with autism and the court heard that Jubair has depression and a severe mood disorder.
How convenient.
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