507
submitted 9 months ago by btp@kbin.social to c/technology@lemmy.ml

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] duncesplayed@lemmy.one 59 points 9 months ago

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@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

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

[-] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 13 points 9 months ago

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

[-] gomp@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

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

this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
507 points (99.2% liked)

Technology

34437 readers
192 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS