London: The public Wi-Fi network at approximately 19 railway stations managed by the UK’s Network Rail has been hacked and remains inaccessible as of Thursday, prompting an investigation by the British Transport Police (BTP).
Network Rail confirmed that several major stations, including London Euston, Paddington, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley, and Glasgow Central, were among those targeted. Passengers attempting to connect to the public Wi-Fi at these stations were met with a message concerning terror attacks in Europe.
“Last night, the public Wi-Fi at 19 of Network Rail’s managed stations was subjected to a cyber security incident and was quickly taken offline,” a spokesperson for Network Rail stated.
The spokesperson added that the incident is currently under a full investigation. The Wi-Fi, provided by a third-party company, is self-contained and operates as a simple ‘click & connect’ service that does not collect personal data. Network Rail expects to restore the service by the weekend once final security checks are completed.
Telent, the company responsible for managing the Wi-Fi system, reported that the attack, which was first identified on Wednesday evening, originated from an unauthorized change made to the Network Rail landing page using a legitimate Global Reach administrator account. This issue is now subject to criminal investigations by the BTP.
The BTP confirmed that it is actively investigating the matter, stating, “We received reports at around 5:03 PM yesterday (Wednesday) of a cyber-attack displaying Islamophobic messaging on some Network Rail Wi-Fi services. We are working alongside Network Rail to investigate the incident at pace.”
This incident follows a recent cyber-attack on Transport for London (TfL), which raised concerns about a potential breach of customer details. A teenager from Walsall, West Midlands, was arrested in connection with the TfL hack.
(With PTI Inputs)
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