Black and White cabs hack has seen mobility of many residents cut off in past week

A Toowoomba taxi driver said the ‘dreadful’ hack on a transport business could have severe ramifications for residents, after a 75-year-old man was allegedly robbed while waiting for a taxi.

A “stupid and dreadful” act by hackers on a taxi company could have cost someone their life, a Toowoomba driver says.

Day trip driver Peter Pike said a cyberattack on Black and White Cabs forced the company’s booking systems to shut down and had resulted in serious consequences for people who depend on the transport service.

“A lot of elderly people retired to Toowoomba because there are good facilities here and they depend on us entirely for their mobility,” he said.

“For a week now, that mobility has been effectively reduced to zero.”

Mr Pike said on a normal day, drivers would be completing jobs back to back in the mornings as residents go to appointments and the shops.

However in two hours on Tuesday, Mr Pike had completed one job.

⚠️🚕 We’ve been informed Black and White Cabs’ taxi booking system is down this morning—which will impact Specialised School Transport pick-ups and likely affect Wheelchair Accessible Taxi bookings.

Black and White Cabs are working to restore the issue asap.

— Transport and Main Roads Queensland (@TMRQld) January 31, 2023

“If you’re trying to support a family driving a taxi, that’s a realistic intention normally, but for the last week, that’s been impossible to achieve,” he said.

“Every single person who has been affected, it is even possible someone may have lost their life as a consequence of this stupidity, it’s all going to come back on the heads of these people responsible.

“Whoever participates in these dreadful activities, they obviously have no idea how the laws of karma work.”

A 75-year-old man is unlikely to survive after he was allegedly assaulted and robbed outside Grand Central while waiting for a taxi.

Mr Pike said because people were unable to call for a taxi, drivers were forced to drive around and hope they were called over.

“Nobody is happy about the situation, it’s quite frustration,” he said.

“(Taxi drivers) spend a lot of time looking after our ‘frail aged’, and we really feel for them at this time. They must be really inconvenienced by all of this.

“Our NDIS passengers are equally as dependent on taxis for their mobility, and we worry about them and are desperate for things to get back to normal for their sakes.”

Drivers have reportedly been kept up to date as the company aims to establish a new operating system, refusing to meet the hackers’ ransom.

However, it remains unclear when a new booking system will be operational.