One day after opening to the general public, Moscow’s highly touted first-ever cable car was forced to shut down after a reported cyberattack.
City authorities promised to turn a long drive to and from Luzhniki Stadium into a five-minute picturesque glide when the cable car opened to much fanfare on Tuesday. Moreover, all rides were declared to be free in the shuttle’s first month of operations.
However, a cyberattack forced all passengers to disembark the cable car only two hours after it opened, its operator said on Wednesday.
A video on the Rossiiskaya Gazeta government daily’s website showed a police officer telling people waiting in line that the cable car would not reopen “for technical reasons.”
The suspected hackers have been found, the Govorit Moskva radio station cited the operator’s spokesman, Nikolai Divakov, as saying Thursday, without identifying the alleged perpetrators.
An unnamed source told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency Thursday that the alleged hacker had demanded a Bitcoin ransom.
The operator did not estimate when the service would be restored.
Last year, authorities complained that visitors had vandalized a concert hall roof and stole rare plants from Moscow’s Zaryadye Park the week of its opening.
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