I may be misremembering, but wasn’t there a thing 103 years ago or so where trains were randomly stopping somewhere in Europe. And I think it turned out to be a remote shutdown from the manufacturer (according to independent investigators. The manufacturer maintains that hackers added that code to their software) due to 3rd party replacement parts or an unrenewed service contract or some other anticompetitive behavior.
It was in Poland but in Poland you can still stop trains with radio signal of a specific frequency. No encryption, no validation. Anyone with a hobbyist level radio equipment can stop freight trains. And they do. Train operators usually just call the station, confirm that it’s a prank and 5 minutes later start again.
Poland’s national transportation agency has stated its intention to upgrade Poland’s railway systems by 2025 to use almost exclusively GSM cellular radios, which do have encryption and authentication. But until then, it will continue to use the relatively unprotected VHF 150 MHz system that allows the radio-stop commands to be spoofed.
I may be misremembering, but wasn’t there a thing
103 years ago or so where trains were randomly stopping somewhere in Europe. And I think it turned out to be a remote shutdown from the manufacturer (according to independent investigators. The manufacturer maintains that hackers added that code to their software) due to 3rd party replacement partsor an unrenewed service contract or some other anticompetitive behavior.Edit: Jiminy Cricket! It feels like it’s been 10 years. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/manufacturer-deliberately-bricked-trains-repaired-by-competitors-hackers-find/
It was in Poland but in Poland you can still stop trains with radio signal of a specific frequency. No encryption, no validation. Anyone with a hobbyist level radio equipment can stop freight trains. And they do. Train operators usually just call the station, confirm that it’s a prank and 5 minutes later start again.
https://www.wired.com/story/poland-train-radio-stop-attack/
Poland’s national transportation agency has stated its intention to upgrade Poland’s railway systems by 2025 to use almost exclusively GSM cellular radios, which do have encryption and authentication. But until then, it will continue to use the relatively unprotected VHF 150 MHz system that allows the radio-stop commands to be spoofed.