PayMyPark down for the last couple of days?! (Mar-2020)

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › PayMyPark down for the last couple of days?! (Mar-2020)

coffeenow

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#268286 10-Mar-2020 11:50

PayMyPark phone app and website appear to have been down for the last couple of days (Mon 9/03/20, Tue 10/03/20)

I assume this affects council parking in Wellington, Hutt City, New Plymouth, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin, Timaru etc.

Wellington City Council (9.20am Tue 10/03/20):

https://wellington.govt.nz/services/parking-and-roads/parking/central-city-street-parking/paymypark-smartphone-app

"Parking payments temporarily unavailable - Our parking system is currently (Tuesday 10 March) experiencing technical issues. The PayMyPark app is down, and online infringement payments and online resident permit applications are not available. We are working on a fix but in the meantime please use the parking meters to pay for parking. We apologise for the inconvenience."

Tauranga City Council (Mon 9/03/20):

https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/council/council-news-and-updates/latest-news/artmid/456/articleid/5355

PayMyPark app is currently down. Our parking enforcement team is aware of the issue, and our supplier is currently working to fix the problem. Txt-to-park, cash and card options at the machine are still working.

The PayMyPark phone app isn't working:

Android: "Data download failed - Failed to download payment provider: 404 Not Fund. Please check your internet connection and restart PayMyPark"

And finally, the website is down:

http://paymypark.com/

"You do not have permission to view this directory or page"

Anyone know what's going on? All the best to the devs working on it!

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#2435670 10-Mar-2020 13:38

Been down since at least Sunday when I last tried to use it.

Then had an argument with the closest meter about which meter was closer to my vehicle. Fairly sure that's a feature, not a bug though.

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halper86

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#2435699 10-Mar-2020 14:26

Down for me. In Invercargill

sbiddle

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#2435722 10-Mar-2020 14:54

It's down nationwide and Council's are saying nothing.

There has been talk the whole platform was hacked or compromised in some way, but it's just that - talk... But when nobody will say anything it does make you wonder.

wellygary

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#2435724 10-Mar-2020 14:57

sbiddle:

It's down nationwide and Council's are saying nothing.

There has been talk the whole platform was hacked or compromised in some way, but it's just that - talk... But when nobody will say anything it does make you wonder.

The fact that they have pulled their public facing website tends to indicate a decision to isolate everything from the outside world.....and you usually don't need to do that unless something very bad is going/has gone on.......

scottjpalmer

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#2435792 10-Mar-2020 16:32

Wellington CC Facebook https://www.facebook.com/182564675177680/posts/2320058061428320/

*PayMyPark Update*
The PayMyPark app and online parking page on the Council’s website are not operating. This outage is affecting a number of Councils across the country – not just Wellington City Council.
Until the PayMyPark phone app comes back online you are able to pay for on-street metered parking at a meter with either cash, credit or debit card or by using text.
Coupon Parking can be paid for by buying a coupon from retailers around the city. In the unlikely event you get a ticket, you can appeal your ticket once the system is back online. We are working on a fix and apologise for this inconvenience and will update our pages when we know more.

coffeenow

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#2436068 10-Mar-2020 22:27

And now wellington.govt.nz is down (10.20pm 10/03/20). Hopefully just a nightly update.

...10.28pm - and now it's back!

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dfnt

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#2436072 10-Mar-2020 22:49

sbiddle:

There has been talk the whole platform was hacked or compromised in some way, but it's just that - talk... But when nobody will say anything it does make you wonder.

That was my first thought too

coffeenow

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#2436079 10-Mar-2020 23:18

As pointed out this afternoon on Facebook:

Dunedin City Council Kia ora Neil

Someone attempted to breach our supplier’s website. Due to the security systems in place, no personal information or credit card details were accessed. Cyber security specialists were called in and as a security measure, the site and app were taken offline. They are working to get the site and app back online as a high priority.

https://www.facebook.com/127922087253478/posts/2864281943617465/?d=n

Goosey

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#2436095 11-Mar-2020 07:20

I too found this same issue in ChCh City yesterday...

So I decided to read the reviews on the IOS app store....Interesting reading! (This issue has been ongoing for what seems 2 years).

So with the post above saying 'there was a breach', does that now translate to each and every instance of this app having an issue over the past couple of years directly related to security compromises?

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#2436138 11-Mar-2020 09:24

It's a very misleading error message.

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coffeenow

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#2436317 11-Mar-2020 12:56

A couple of newspapers finally reported it today... that's all folks:

https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/236812-council-parking-app-down.html

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12315683

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RunningMan

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#2436360 11-Mar-2020 15:13

And Stuff, which links back here

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#2436436 11-Mar-2020 18:12

RunningMan:

And Stuff, which links back here

Actually, the Stuff article looks like mostly a cut and paste from here

freitasm

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#2436491 11-Mar-2020 18:56

According to the company that provides the service they were victims of a ransomware attack. As posted by Wellington City Council today:

The following is a statement from ADRiley, the supplier of the service:

On Saturday 7 March, Arthur D Riley & Co Limited. was the victim of a ransomware attack. This has seen the temporary closure of the PayMyPark application.

The security of our systems and the protection of personal data is of the utmost importance to us.

We responded to this incident as soon as we were notified and commissioned a thorough investigation which is being undertaken by the PwC Cyber Response Team.

As a result of this ongoing investigation, we believe we have identified how this attack occurred and have taken steps to get PayMyPark back online.

We want to assure all our customers and users that we have not identified any breach of private or personal information or data as a result of this ransomware attack.

We can also confirm that PayMyPark does not hold any credit card or other personal financial information.

We have been working on testing the integrity and security of our systems in conjunction with our Cyber Response advisors.

We understand that incidents like this are serious and are concerning for our customers and users. We would like to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience.

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coffeenow

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#2436506 11-Mar-2020 19:31

And... it's back. Website and phone app looking OK. Logged in and available balance is still available :-)

https://paymypark.com/

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