Two New Yorkers colluded with the Russians and hacked into the taxi system at Kennedy Airport

Hackers charged taxi drivers to reduce customer waiting times Justice Department.

Daniel Abaev and Peter Leiman are accused of conspiring to commit computer intrusions. According to the indictment, they hacked into the electronic taxi dispatch system at John F. Kennedy International Airport (“JFK”). Taxi drivers must wait in a parking lot at JFK before being sent to a customer. The computer system ensures that taxis are dispatched in the order in which they arrived. Abaev and Leiman colluded with Russian citizens to hack the dispatch service system. And moved certain taxis to the front of the queue in exchange for money. The suspects were arrested on the morning of December 20 in Queens.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “These two defendants boarded the Port Authority with the help of Russian hackers. For years, hacking by the defendants prevented honest taxi drivers from picking up customers at JFK in the order in which they arrived.”

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Starting in 2019, the defendants studied and tried to use various mechanisms for accessing the dispatch system

This includes bribing employees to insert a USB stick with malware into computers connected to the taxi dispatch system. As well as gaining unauthorized access to the dispatching system via Wi-Fi and stealing computer tablets. Participants in the hacking scheme sent messages to each other discussing their intention to hack into the control system. For example, on November 10, 2019, Abaev sent a message to one of the Russian hackers with the following content: “I know that the Pentagon is being hacked. So can't we hack the taxi system."

From November 2019 to November 2020, Abaev and Leiman controlled the dispatching system

They used unauthorized access to change the dispatch system and move certain taxis in line. Abaev and Leiman charged drivers $10 each time they moved illegally in line. Participants in the scheme offered some taxi drivers to advance in line for free if they recruited other drivers to join the scheme. The scammers used large group chats to communicate with taxi drivers. In these chats, Abaev also instructed drivers on how to avoid detection by law enforcement.

Abaev and Leiman's scheme resulted in a large number of taxi drivers receiving orders out of turn. During the life of the scheme, up to 1 fraudulent trips per day were made.