Transport for London has responded to claims made by Dutch security researchers that the Oyster card is not secure and can be hacked and cloned easily.

ZDNet has the following statement from TfL’ regarding the matter:

“Londoners can have total confidence in the security of their Oyster cards. We run daily tests for cloned or fraudulent cards and any found would be stopped within 24 hours of being discovered. Therefore the most anyone could gain from a rogue card is one day’s travel. Security is the key aspect of the Oyster system and Londoners can have confidence in the security of their Oyster cards. Using a fraudulent card for free travel is subject to prosecution.”

TranSys - the consortium responsible for delivering Oyster on behalf of TfL also commented to ZDNet:

“Oyster has been designed with security at the forefront of its functionality. It has robust security, which operates at different points within the system. This ensures that should one security measure be breached, another will protect Oyster cards and the system as a whole. No personal information is stored on an Oyster card and specific information relating to the individual card holder (name, address, telephone etc) is stored on a central database and kept separate from journey data.”

Read the full story here.