A low-cost radio hack has reportedly disrupted Poland’s railway system, a vital piece of transit infrastructure for NATO’s support of Ukraine. Over the course of Friday and Saturday, over 20 trains were halted across Poland in what has been described as a “cyberattack”.
According to Wired, the disruption appears to have been caused by a simple radio command that triggers the trains’ emergency stop function. The hackers reportedly interspersed the commands they used to halt the trains with the Russian national anthem and parts of a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The events are presently under scrutiny by Polish intelligence agencies, as they appear to have been executed in favor of Russia. The targeted incidents involved trains transporting both cargo and passengers.
Lukasz Olejnik, a cybersecurity researcher and consultant, said that the “cyberattack” didn’t involve any “cyber” at all.
Instead of more complex methods, the individuals responsible utilized basic “radio-stop” instructions transmitted via radio frequencies to manipulate the targeted trains.
Due to the absence of encryption or verification for these directives, even individuals with minimal resources, such as $30 worth of readily available radio equipment, can broadcast the command to a Polish train and activate its emergency stop mechanism.
The Polish national transportation agency has stated its plan to enhance Poland’s railway infrastructure by transitioning to predominantly GSM cellular radios by 2025, as these radios possess encryption and authentication capabilities. However, until this transition occurs, the currently vulnerable VHF 150 MHz system, which is susceptible to the manipulation of “radio-stop” commands, will remain in use.
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