Black and White Cabs

Black and White Cabs operates as a taxi service provider within Australia. Its core business involves facilitating passenger transportation through dispatch, administration, and booking systems. These customer-facing services are critical for managing ride requests and coordinating drivers. The company primarily serves the Australian market, relying significantly on digital infrastructure for operational management alongside traditional phone-based bookings. The disruption caused by a cyber incident highlighted the centrality of these systems to its service delivery model.

The organisation experienced a significant operational disruption due to a cyber attack on January 31, 2023. This incident involved a CryptoLocker virus that encrypted network contents, forcing a temporary shutdown of its dispatch, administration, and booking services. Forensic investigation involved both the company's internal IT team and external cybersecurity experts, with the incident reported to the Australian Cyber Security Centre. While no evidence of customer data compromise was found, precautionary security enhancements were implemented. Restoration efforts prioritized containment and recovery, with phone bookings resuming after partial system restoration; these phone bookings were noted as representing over 80% of the company's operations. The attack vector was suspected to be phishing, leading to prolonged outages across critical business functions.