Kennedy Airport taxi driver hackers plead guilty
Taxis wait for passengers at Kennedy Airport in Queens in January 2020. Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
Two Queens hack drivers have pleaded guilty — and two hackers living in Russia have been charged — in connection with a dispatch system scheme that allowed taxi drivers to skip the line at Kennedy Airport during a two-year period between 2019 and 2021, officials said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said the hacking scheme altered how cabs were dispatched from a waiting area at Kennedy and involved two Queens drivers who solicited kickbacks from taxi drivers to cut the line. It ran from September 2019 to September 2021 and resulted in as many as 1,000 “fraudulently expedited taxi trips a day.”
The Queens men, identified as Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman, charged other drivers $10 each time they were advanced to the front of the line, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. The pair then shared the profits with two Russian nationals who authorities said hacked the system. Those two men were identified in an indictment as Aleksandr Derebenetc (aka, Sasha Novgorod) and Kirill Shipulin (aka, Kirill Russia).
“As alleged in the indictment,” Williams said in a statement Monday, “these four defendants conspired to hack into the taxi dispatch system at JFK airport. Cyber hacking can pose grave threats to infrastructure systems that we rely on every day, and our Office is dedicated to pursuing criminal hackers, whether they be in Russia or here in New York.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Abayev, 47, and Leyman, 49, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Leyman is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 11, Abayev on Feb. 12.
Derebenetc, 30, of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and Shipulin, 30, of Moscow, both remain “at large,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Each faces two counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Officials said that while drivers who sought to pick up fares at Kennedy were required to wait in a holding lot before being dispatched to a specific terminal, the four men named in the hack first tried to bribe “someone” to insert a flash drive containing malware into computers connected to the system, then obtained unauthorized access to the Dispatch System via a Wi-Fi connection, stealing computer tablets connected to the system.
“They used their unauthorized access to alter the Dispatch System and move specific taxis to the front of the line,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “thereby allowing drivers of those taxis to skip other taxi drivers waiting in the line.”
At one point, authorities said, while discussing their intent to hack the system, Abayev messaged Derebenetc in Russian, writing: “I know that the Pentagon in being hacked [.]. So can’t we hack the taxi industry[?]”
Two Queens hack drivers have pleaded guilty — and two hackers living in Russia have been charged — in connection with a dispatch system scheme that allowed taxi drivers to skip the line at Kennedy Airport during a two-year period between 2019 and 2021, officials said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said the hacking scheme altered how cabs were dispatched from a waiting area at Kennedy and involved two Queens drivers who solicited kickbacks from taxi drivers to cut the line. It ran from September 2019 to September 2021 and resulted in as many as 1,000 “fraudulently expedited taxi trips a day.”
The Queens men, identified as Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman, charged other drivers $10 each time they were advanced to the front of the line, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. The pair then shared the profits with two Russian nationals who authorities said hacked the system. Those two men were identified in an indictment as Aleksandr Derebenetc (aka, Sasha Novgorod) and Kirill Shipulin (aka, Kirill Russia).
“As alleged in the indictment,” Williams said in a statement Monday, “these four defendants conspired to hack into the taxi dispatch system at JFK airport. Cyber hacking can pose grave threats to infrastructure systems that we rely on every day, and our Office is dedicated to pursuing criminal hackers, whether they be in Russia or here in New York.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Abayev, 47, and Leyman, 49, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Leyman is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 11, Abayev on Feb. 12.
Derebenetc, 30, of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and Shipulin, 30, of Moscow, both remain “at large,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Each faces two counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Officials said that while drivers who sought to pick up fares at Kennedy were required to wait in a holding lot before being dispatched to a specific terminal, the four men named in the hack first tried to bribe “someone” to insert a flash drive containing malware into computers connected to the system, then obtained unauthorized access to the Dispatch System via a Wi-Fi connection, stealing computer tablets connected to the system.
“They used their unauthorized access to alter the Dispatch System and move specific taxis to the front of the line,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “thereby allowing drivers of those taxis to skip other taxi drivers waiting in the line.”
At one point, authorities said, while discussing their intent to hack the system, Abayev messaged Derebenetc in Russian, writing: “I know that the Pentagon in being hacked [.]. So can’t we hack the taxi industry[?]”
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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