London's pre-pay travel card has been successfully hacked by a Dutch research team.
The safety of London's pre-pay Oyster cards has been called into question by Dutch security experts.
Researchers at Radboud University in Nijmegen have found that the cards, which are used for contactless payments on the city's trains and buses, can be cloned. The Dutch team even proved the efficacy of its Oyster hack on a field trip, by travelling on the Tube using a cloned card; the group were then able to reset the card's credit level by using a laptop.
However, such a card would only be effective for up to a day as Oyster's operators at Transport for London (TfL) check the system every 24 hours, the body pointed out today.
Commenting on the news to technology website ZDNet.co.uk, a TfL spokesperson said: "We run daily tests for cloned or fraudulent cards and any found would be stopped within 24 hours of being discovered. Security is the key aspect of the Oyster system and Londoners can have confidence in the security of their Oyster cards.
"Using a fraudulent card for free travel is subject to prosecution."
The Radboud research was announced to the Dutch parliament by the university's Wouter Teepe. It was conducted as part of an investigation into a proposed pre-pay transport card system planned for future installation in the Netherlands.
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