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Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them (www.404media.co)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

117 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[+] [email protected] -28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago

If you RTFA, they were paid by the repair company who was paid by the private train operator to fix the train. In doing so, they reverse engineered the hardware/firmware and found the DRM added by the manufacturer to prevent the repair company from doing the repairs by bricking the train.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes yes, how dare they unbrick public transportation infrastructure.

Fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If the train owner allowed it, it's just maintenance that happens to affect software.

Hacking would be if it was not authorized by the owner.

Any maintenance not authorized by the train maker entitles them at most to suspend the Warranty.