You are reading

Two Rego Park Men Conspire With Russian Nationals to Hack the Taxi Dispatch System at JFK Airport: Feds

Photo; Kevin Lee/Unsplash

Dec. 21, 2022 By Christian Murray

Two Rego Park men—with the aid of Russian nationals—have been indicted for hacking into the taxi dispatch system at JFK Airport and charging drivers a fee to get to the front of the line.

Daniel Abayev, 48, and Peter Leyman, 48, have been indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The pair are accused of working with Russian hackers to corrupt the Dispatch System so they could move certain taxis to the front of the line. They allegedly charged drivers $10 who wanted to avoid the long lines. The scheme went on for at least two years.

“As alleged in the indictment, these two defendants — with the help of Russian hackers — took the Port Authority for a ride,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.  “For years, the defendants’ hacking kept honest cab drivers from being able to pick up fares at JFK in the order in which they arrived.”

Drivers are frequently required to wait several hours in a holding lot at JFK and are dispatched in approximately the order in which they arrive at the lot.

According to the charges, Abayev and Leyman explored and attempted various mechanisms to access the Dispatch System, including bribing someone to insert a flash drive containing malware into computers connected to the Dispatch System, obtaining unauthorized access to the Dispatch System via a Wi-Fi connection, and stealing computer tablets connected to the Dispatch System.

The participants in the scheme also sent messages to each other in which they explicitly discussed their intention to hack the system.  For example, on or about Nov. 10, 2019, Abayev messaged the following to one of the Russian hackers in Russian: “I know that the Pentagon is being hacked[.]. So, can’t we hack the taxi industry[?]”

Taxi drivers learned that they could skip the line by paying $10 through word of mouth.

The hackers also used large group chat threads in order to communicate with taxi drivers.  For example, when the hackers had access to the Dispatch System for the day, they would post a message to the group that read “Shop open.”

Abayev and Leyman’s scheme resulted in large numbers of taxi drivers skipping the taxi line.  Over the course of the scheme, they enabled as many as 1,000 fraudulently expedited taxi trips a day.

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Longtime Queens jurist named chief administrative judge of New York State Unified Court System

Judge Joseph A. Zayas, who spent most of his judicial career presiding over Queens’ courtrooms, was officially installed as chief administrative judge of the New York State Unified Court System, the highest-ranking administrative position in the state judiciary.

Judge Zayas was appointed by Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson and approved by the Administrative Board of the Courts to succeed Judge Tamiko Amaker, who served as the court system’s acting chief administrative judge since December 2022.

“Judge Zayas has a stellar reputation for his keen judgment, hard work, integrity and deep knowledge of both the law and the complex workings of the New York State court system,” said Chief Judge Rowan. “He has demonstrated exceptional leadership and the highest ethical standards over the course of his distinguished judicial career. He is a forward-thinking, hands-on manager as proven throughout his tenure as administrative judge for criminal matters in Queens County, where he implemented numerous reforms and programs to improve the delivery of justice.”

The chief administrative judge supervises the daily administration and operation of the Unified Court System, which has a budget of $3.3. billion, with 3,600 state and locally paid judges and nearly 15,000 non-judicial employees in over 300 courthouses spanning 62 counties.

Queens Symphony Orchestra performs at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach

Councilwoman Joann Ariola brought the Queens Symphony Orchestra to Russo’s on the Bay on May 22 for the Night at the Opera – a free concert event that drew more than 200 people to the Howard Beach events hall located at 162-45 Cross Bay Blvd.

“It was truly an honor to continue funding such a wonderful program, and to bring this great music to so many people,” Ariola said. “We were able to bring so many people together for a free night of music – that’s what this is all about, letting taxpayer dollars work for the taxpayer, and providing programs like this that give our residents a nice night out to just unwind and enjoy themselves.”

Advocates pen letter blasting Mayor Adams’ legal motion to suspend right-to-shelter

Homeless advocates penned a letter to a Manhattan Supreme Court judge opposing Mayor Eric Adams’ recent legal motion calling for the suspension of the city’s decades-old right-to-shelter law amid the ongoing migrant influx.

The letter, sent last Thursday and released Tuesday, comes in response to Adams last week filing a court motion to exempt the city from its legal mandate — established by the 1984 Callahan v. Carey consent decree — to provide shelter to single adults and adult couples when it “lacks the resources and capacity” to do so. The mayor and top administration officials say they’re not seeking to abolish the right-to-shelter, but rather “clarity” from the court that would give them more “flexibility” in finding suitable housing for tens of thousands of migrants.

Rockaway’s piping plovers among endangered species commemorated on U.S. Postal Service stamps

A day before the city reopened nearly 70 blocks of public beaches along the Rockaway peninsula for the Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Postal Service and National Park Service hosted a special event at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel to honor the piping plover, an endangered shorebird featured on new stamps.

In attendance were members of the NYC Plover Project, a nonprofit with more than 250 volunteers, who have been on the beaches since March preparing for the summer swim season, who celebrated the newly released stamp sheet commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.

Bayside High School hosts annual Social Entrepreneur Trade Fair

Bayside High School hosted its annual Social Entrepreneur Trade Fair Friday. Students from the Career and Technical Education Humanities and Nonprofit Management program each pitched their socially responsible products to students, staff and others in attendance.

Each of the 11th grade students in the program have been taking a college credit course from Farmingdale State College called Social Entrepreneur. The students were divided into 17 groups of five and tasked with coming up with innovative ideas to create businesses while also being socially responsible. The Social Entrepreneur Trade Fair grants them with the opportunity to work on pitching their products to potential customers.