30 Oct 2014

New bus card to patch security flaws

1:00 pm on 30 October 2014

Christchurch bus users will soon have access to a new public transport card the regional council intends to be hacker-proof.

Up to 70,000 card users had their personal details compromised last year when the regional council, Ecan, had its system hacked and instructions on how to top up cards for free were put on You Tube.

One year on, new cards are being made available that will prevent a repeat of the incident.

Ecan's public transport manager, David Stenhouse, says security problems with the old system were known about as far back as 2011.

He said the February 2011 earthquake meant other issues took priority, and while they knew there was a risk they though it was minimal.

"As soon as the hacker identified the other issues with the system then we got straight on to resolving them and we've done as good a job as we can."

Mr Stenhouse said the new cards would be available in about a month.

The new bus card is intended to be hacker-proof.

The new bus card is intended to be hacker-proof. Photo: RNZ / Conan Young