 | This article needs to be updated.(February 2024) |
The Polish railway cyberattack is a series of suspected sabotage attempts in August 2023 aimed at the Polish State Railways.
| This article needs to be updated.(February 2024) |
The Polish railway cyberattack is a series of suspected sabotage attempts in August 2023 aimed at the Polish State Railways.
The "radio stop" command system has a vulnerability - when a certain three tonal signal is transmitted through the railway radio network, trains stop automatically. [1]
At 9:23 pm on two sections of line near Szczecin a stop signal was broadcast by an unknown person. [1] It affected more than 20 trains and freight traffic was stopped as a precaution. [1] Services were restored within hours. [2]
Around 6pm near Gdynia a second incident took place - a freight train was also affected later that evening. [1]
Trains near Białystok were affected by fake stop signals. [1] Five passenger trains and one freight train were stopped. [3] Two men were arrested in connection with the disruption near Białystok. [3] One suspect is a police officer. [3] Prosecutors opened an investigation. [3]
Police in Białystok announced they had begun a dismissal procedure against the officer arrested on Sunday. [3] Sixteen people have been arrested as suspects in spying for Russia. [3]
The disruptions are being investigated both by police and intelligence organisations, including the Internal Security Agency. [3]
Some of the disruptive signals included the Russian anthem and part of a speech by Vladimir Putin. [2]
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formerly the Main Intelligence Directorate, and still commonly known by its previous abbreviation GRU, is the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The GRU controls the military intelligence service and maintains its own special forces units.
The Polish State Railways is a Polish state-owned holding company comprising the rail transport holdings of the country's formerly dominant namesake railway operator. The company was reformed in 2001 when the former Polish State Railways state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure management and transport operations. Polish State Railways is the dominant company in the PKP Group collective that resulted from the split, and maintains 100% share control, being fully responsible for the assets of all of the other PKP Group component companies.
The Cambrian Line, sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line and Cambrian Coast Line for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury, England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services are operated by Transport for Wales Rail between the western terminals of Pwllheli, in Gwynedd, and Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion, and the eastern terminal at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, as part of the Wales & Borders franchise. The railway line is widely regarded as scenic, as it passes through the Cambrian Mountains in central Wales, and along the coast of Cardigan Bay in Snowdonia National Park.
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The Internal Security Agency is Poland's domestic counterintelligence and security agency. The ABW is responsible for analyzing, reporting and preventing threats to Poland's internal security, including terrorism, foreign espionage, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, organized crime, corruption and economic coercion. Its powers include arresting individuals, conducting searches and investigations, and combating terrorism with a specialized armed anti-terrorist force.
PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. is the Polish railway infrastructure manager, responsible for maintenance of rail tracks, conducting trains across the country, scheduling train timetables, and management of railway land.
Broad Gauge Metallurgy Line is the longest broad gauge railway line in Poland.
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Rail Baltica is an under-construction rail infrastructure project that is intended to integrate the Baltic states in the European rail network. Its purpose is to provide passenger and freight service between participating countries and improve rail connections between Central and Northern Europe, specifically the area southeast of the Baltic Sea. It is also intended as a catalyst for building the economic corridor in Northeastern Europe. The project envisages a continuous rail link from Tallinn (Estonia) to Warsaw (Poland), consisting of links via Riga (Latvia), Kaunas, and Vilnius (Lithuania). Its total length in the Baltic States is 870 kilometres (540 mi), with 213 kilometres (132 mi) in Estonia, 265 kilometres (165 mi) in Latvia, and 392 kilometres (244 mi) in Lithuania. Rail Baltica is one of the priority projects of the European Union (EU). It is part of the North Sea–Baltic Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T).
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Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway is a 1,333 km (828 mi) long railway, built in the 19th century by the Russian Empire to connect Russia with Central Europe. At the time the entire railway was within the Russian Empire: Warsaw was under a Russian partition of Poland. Due to territorial changes, the line now lies within five countries and crosses the eastern border of the European Union three times. Therefore, no passenger trains follow the entire route. Passenger trains between Saint Petersburg and Warsaw used to travel through Brest instead and a new line called Rail Baltica is under development to improve the direct connection between Poland and Lithuania.
Białystok railway station is the most important railway station in the city of Białystok, Poland. It is sometimes referred to as Białystok Central, to distinguish it from six other, much smaller, stations located in the city.
The Grodzisk Mazowiecki–Zawiercie railway better known as the Central Rail Line, designated by Polish national railway infrastructure manager PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe as rail line number 4, is a 224 km (139 mi) long railway line in Poland between Zawiercie outside the Katowice urban area and Grodzisk Mazowiecki in the suburbs of Warsaw.
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The Szczekociny rail crash occurred on 3 March 2012 when two passenger trains collided head-on near the town of Szczekociny, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. Sixteen people died in the incident and 58 were injured. An investigative report showed that the cause of the crash was due to human error by train dispatchers and the train drivers.
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