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Metro experiences cybersecurity attack, website shut down for hours

WMATA released a statement on Tuesday stating that the company experienced a ‘denial-of-service attack’ on May 7.

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is investigating a cyber security attack against Metro. 

WMATA released a statement on Tuesday stating that the company experienced a ‘denial-of-service attack’ on May 7. They said none of their customer or employee data was compromised. Nor were the attackers able to breach the WMATA website.

According to Palo Alto Networks, a multinational cybersecurity company, a denial-of-service attack is defined as an attack meant to shut down a machine or network making it inaccessible to users. The attack shut down the website for two hours, but services including the SmarTrip app and mobile transactions were not impacted. 

Metro’s cybersecurity team is now coordinating with the TSA to investigate who was behind the attack. 

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