TikTok ‘hacking’ videos blamed for rise in abandoned e-bikes | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacking | #aihp

TikTok videos showing how to “hack” rental e-bikes are fuelling antisocial behaviour and a surge in the number abandoned on the streets.

Dozens of videos, largely filmed in London, on the social media app show how to “jump start” the bikes, allowing them to be ridden without paying. Others show the bikes being sabotaged with cables cut to disconnect them from the company’s networks.

So-called dockless bike schemes have become increasingly popular in cities across the country, with users able to hire e-bikes using their mobile phone and leave them anywhere once their journey is complete.

Lime said bikes that were hacked and then dumped accounted for 40 per cent of all complaints about how bikes were left parked

ALAMY

In London, individual boroughs have the authority to approve whether cycle schemes can deploy bikes, with Lime, Tier, Dott, and HumanForest among those in operation.

In Brixton, south London,