San Francisco public transit's ticketing system hit by cyber attack

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) said on Monday it was a victim of a ransomware attack that disrupted some of our internal computer systems including email.

However, the public transportation authority said transit service was unaffected and there were no impacts to the safe operation of buses and subway trains, and neither customer privacy nor transaction information were compromised.

In a related story, the San Francisco Examiner reported that an alleged hacker behind the attack, which started last Friday, said the attackers only accept Bitcoin, an electronic form of currency, and demanded 100 Bitcoin, equivalent to about 73,000 U.S. dollars, from the SFMTA.

While the attack is the subject of an ongoing investigation, the SFMTA said the situation is now contained, and the agency has prioritized restoring its systems to be fully operational. Endit