Polish hackers repair trains deliberately blocked by manufacturer

Lower Silesian Railways is a railway operator in the Lower Silesian region in south-west Poland, which uses a total of 11 Impuls 45WE trains manufactured by the Polish company Newag. However, these trains are maintained by another company, Serwis Pojazdów Szynowych (SPS). In recent months, several of the trains started to have mysterious failures and were sent to the workshops of the company responsible for their maintenance.

After several attempts without finding a solution to the problem, SPS decided to contact three hackers (Jakub Stępniewicz, Sergiusz Bazański, and Michał Kowalczyk), members of the Dragon Sector group.

Finally, after two months of analysing the software, the hackers were able to fix the trains, and in the process, they found that the manufacturer's interference caused the trains to break down and fail to start. According to their findings, the trains were deliberately tampered with by the manufacturer itself.

Faced with these allegations, Newag has decided to take legal action against the alleged hackers, as well as the repair company that hired them. In addition, it is demanding that the repaired trains be taken out of service immediately because they have been "hacked" and therefore may now be unsafe.