Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them

In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is now threatening to sue the hackers who were hired by the independent repair company to fix it.

After breaking trains simply because an independent repair shop had worked on them, NEWAG is now demanding that trains fixed by hackers be removed from service.

Moonrise2473,

“The president of Newag contacted me,” Cieszyński wrote. "He claims that Newag fell victim to cybercriminals and it was not an intentional action by the company

Yes, those cybercriminals that once infiltrated in a business network, instead of stealing data or holding ransoms, hide multiple iterations in the code of a snippet that only benefits the corp. Sure, they exist

Malgas,

Also taking legal action against people who helped your customers resolve the consequences of such an attack seems perfectly normal and not at all contrary to that narrative.

duncesplayed,

Holy shit. If I understand correctly, the trains were programmed to use their GPS sensors to detect if they were ever physically moved to an independent repair shop. If they detected that they were at an independent repair shop, they were programmed to lock themselves and give strange and nonsensical error codes. Typing in an unlock code at the engineer’s console would allow the trains to start working normally again.

If there were a corporation-sized mirror, I don’t know how NEWAG could look at itself in it.

Archpawn,

They weren’t doing anything smartphone manufacturers haven’t been doing for years. Or those guys that make McDonalds ice cream machines.

kilgore_trout,

With the difference that a government agency is operating these trains and that repairs are not cheap.

gomp,

Governments (and the public sector in general) are treated way worse by companies than private customers who can far more easily switch to a competitor or influence others to do so

Diplomjodler,

Good opportunity for the new polish government to show that they’re actually sane.

onlinepersona,

The government better sue the train manufacturer and protect these hackers. The hackers saved the state millions - possibly hundreds of millions.

hexloc,

lmao.

davel,
@davel@lemmy.ml avatar

The European Union is an antidemocratic corporate cartel.

onlinepersona,

Good thing it wasn’t the EU that made the trains 👌

Quacksalber, (edited )

The EU is in a constant struggle for its direction. Discounting it as a lost cause only allows malicious actors free reign. On the one hand, EU regulators take on tech monopolies, like forcing Microsoft to un-bundle Windows and Edge/Bing. And european courts have repeatedly struck down legislation that would allow for indiscriminate data retention.
On the other hand, the EU politicians are currently trying to sneak through a law that would force browsers to accept state-issued root certificates, allowing them to spy on and alter any and all internet communication, basically upending the trust-based system that keeps the internet secure currently. This law is part of the eIDAS initiative.
And I’m sure that with the new, EU-driven right to repair initiative, the train manufacturer will be forced to back down soon too.

flambonkscious,

Interesting, this needs some reading

Quacksalber,

Here is a link detailing the issues concerning root certificates in the eIDAS legislation, as it currently written and about to be voted on: www.theregister.com/2023/…/europe_eidas_browser/

flambonkscious,

Thanks! I stumbled across the Mozilla blog on it, too

blog.mozilla.org/…/mozilla-publishes-position-pap…

kilgore_trout,

The right to repair proposal will sure have a list of exemptions, not to hurt the feelings of big commercial conglomerates.

Illuminostro,

Diplomjodler,

Maybe you should stop huffing Orban’s farts.

davel,
@davel@lemmy.ml avatar

No, I huff Marxist economist and ex-Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis’ farts.

Diplomjodler,

Ah, those are extra spicy.

WolfhoundRO,

Basically the wrong exhaust fumes.

Implying there are also the right exhaust fumes smh

PanArab,
@PanArab@lemmy.ml avatar

True, but that’s why it is somewhat functional. Otherwise it would be a mess, swinging back and forth between contradictory short term thinking.

The Arabian Gulf states are not democratic at all, and sometimes the governments go against the wishes of the people -mostly US-aligned foreign policies and social and economic liberalization-. But they sure can get shit done and massively. Kinda like China but on a smaller scale because all together the Arabian Gulf -without the foreigners- adds up to the population of one Chinese city.

KingThrillgore, (edited )
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

It would be interesting to see if Alstom, Hyundai Rotem, and Stadler Rail are doing the same. They are sitting on billions in public sector contracts.

relevants,

Stadler (sic)

?

WashedOver,
@WashedOver@lemmy.ca avatar

I wonder if they were taking notes from John Deere and the automotive industry or will it be the reverse here soon?

Just imagine all these vehicles that could be bricked for not going back to the stealerships for outrageous prices on parts and incompetent service.

Also the vehicles that could be disabled for not paying for device protection plan that allows your vehicle to operate safely. It would be a shame if your vehicle stopped working on your way to work or the hospital.

I suspect Tesla, BMW, and John Deere are the closest to this reality.

I sure hope the government doesn’t help with another great cash for clunkers national program to get rid of more cars too old for these measures. Sure is a great way to drive new car sales though…

RustedSwitch,
@RustedSwitch@lemmy.world avatar

Add Mercedes to that list of companies close to doing this

Blizzard,

I wonder if they’ll be able to overclock those trains or install some mods.

Sotuanduso,

The trains run DOOM.

JillyB,

I’m now imagining rgb trains. Mechanical turn styles, high refresh rate info screens, giant AIO coolers.

SomeoneSomewhere,

Plenty of modern rolling stock already has water cooled power electronics, oil-cooled transformers, and I’m sure there’s RGB passenger information displays.

They also laugh at your little 120/140/200mm fans.

SkaveRat,

Okay, but now we need to upgrade those industrial fans to noctua

SomeoneSomewhere,

Let me introduce you to ebm-pabst.

i_am_not_a_robot,

Maybe they can put some of these in www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmrQ-xm546o

Blizzard,

“You wouldn’t pirate a train”

Malgas,

“Train pirate” has got to be one of the steampunkiest job titles I’ve ever heard.

milicent_bystandr,

Is this a robbery?

No! It’s a science experiment… computer science!

ours,

The robbery is what the train manufacturer did.

WolfhoundRO,

Then the hackers did a train robbery on the train robbery

Blizzard,

Their leader, ‘Dutch’, had a good plan.

WolfhoundRO,

He also screamed at the screen “ONE! MORE! SCORE!”

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