The Luas website is offline after it was hacked on Thursday morningLuas, Facebook
Hackers threaten release of user data
The Luas website in Ireland has been taken offline after hackers compromised the site and demanded ransom in Bitcoin.
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Users who logged on to the website for Dublin City’s light-rail service on Thursday morning received a message that said: “You are hacked”
The message hackers posted to Luas.ie
“some time ago I wrote that you have serious security holes," the hackers posted, “you didn't reply"
The hackers also went on to demand a ransom: "You must pay 1 bitcoin in 5 days otherwise I will publish all data and send emails to your users."
Currently, one Bitcoin is worth about $3,844.
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On Twitter, Luas said that their IT department took the site offline in order to correct the issue, which could take at least a day.
The Luas website was compromised this morning , and a malicious message was put on the home page. The website has been taken down by the IT company who manage it, and their technicians are working on it. Luas are informed this may take the day to resolve.
— Luas (@Luas) January 3, 2019
Luas representatives added that the website hack should not affect Luas service through Dublin City, and that users can still access information via social media and helplines.