A cyberattack targeting prominent UK train stations, such as London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly, and Liverpool Lime Street, resulted in the display of Islamophobic messages to travellers trying to connect to public Wi-Fi.
Since the situation started on September 25, it has affected a total of 19 train stations that Network Rail manages.
Details of the Attack
Passengers were forwarded by the hack to a pornographic website that made reference to a previous terror attack in the UK. The Telent Wi-Fi system that was impacted was quickly taken offline while an investigation was conducted.
While resolving the issue, Network Rail turned off the Wi-Fi at all of its stations across the country.
Reports of the attack were received by British Transport Police at approximately 5:00 pm on the day of the incident. They are currently collaborating closely on the breach investigation with Telent and Network Rail.
The public was reassured by a police official that the inquiry is proceeding “at pace.” It was stressed by Network Rail that the compromised Wi-Fi service is a third-party platform that does not gather personal information from its customers.
Conversely, Telent made it clear that an unauthorized alteration to the landing page was made using a valid administrator account in order to carry out the breach.
They have suspended all of Global Reach, the landing page provider, as a precaution and confirmed that no other clients were impacted.
“The attack on the public Wi-Fi at UK railway stations shows how vulnerable our critical national infrastructure can be when third-party services aren’t properly secured. It’s worrying that a system like this, used daily by thousands of passengers, was compromised and used to display terrorist messages,” noted Jamie Moles, Senior Technical Manager at ExtraHop.
Implications for National Security
This most recent incident comes after a cyberattack that targeted Transport for London (TfL) and led to the compromise of user data and the limitation of certain online services.
CEO of Closed Door Security William Wright stated that it is obvious that nation-state enemies have targeted the UK and are intent to hurt the nation given the recent event involving Network Rail Wi-Fi and the TfL attack that occurred so soon after.
Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist (CSS) & Advisory CISO at Delinea, added, “Yet again, malicious hackers have reminded us that significant infrastructure will remain vulnerable if organizations fail to assess cyber-risks and monitor access to critical systems. Identities and credentials are the most overlooked vulnerabilities that organizations have, but the knowledge is critical for detection and prevention. Today’s hack was a threat; we don’t know what tomorrow might bring, and as a nation, we can’t afford to be unprepared.”
By the weekend, it is anticipated that the stations’ Wi-Fi would be operational again.
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