Transit

141 readers

2 users here now

A community for discussion on transit systems and transportation all over the world: including buses, trains, trams, streetcars, bicycles, etc. Also relevant are transportation planning, transportation engineering, and design.

Subreddit banner: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luxembourg,_tram_2018-07_all%C3%A9e_Scheffer.jpg

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Toba

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

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/transit

3 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.

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Viking_Hippie 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Before looking it up, how much do you wanna bet that those NEWAG bastards are an American company? Put me down for 20 bucks.

Edit: turns out it's not, it's from Poland. There's no doubt that they got the idea for those despicable practices from American companies, though.

Also, this was fucking WILD:

a Polish hacker had developed a dongle that was being used by American repair professionals to bypass DRM on ventilators needed to keep COVID-19 patients alive

This is your society on underregulated capitalism AKA regulatory capture 🤬

[–] ThePyroPython 9 points 1 year ago

Is it going to impact the safe operation of the trains?

Yes: fair enough but the manufacturer should really be making these trains easier to repair and keep in safe working condition.

No: fuck you, run the trains.

[–] NightAuthor 7 points 1 year ago

“It’s a safety issue” 🙄