Teens who hacked TfL were known to police years before cyber-attack

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.

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.

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.

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.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) says it highlights the need for its officers to be given additional powers.

Flowers and Jubair's trial heard they were part of the cyber-crime collective, Scattered Spider.

The loosely organised gang of young English-speaking cyber-criminals has been linked to dozens of other cyber-attacks including on retailers Marks and Spencer and the Co-op.

But 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.

Police had the option to invite him to enrol in the national Cyber Choices programme, which works to steer young people away from cyber-crime.