14 Year Old Hacker Derails Train

By on Jan 11, 2008 · 2 Comments 

wschool111.jpg

I’m sure the media is going to put a nasty spin on this story about how all hackers are bad.

A 14 year old boy has been arrested after hacking into a Polish train system and using it like a giant train set which caused 12 people injuries. Initially it looked like he was being malicious, but I think it’s just the media trying to skirt the real problem; the kid was obviously bored and needed some form of stimulation. I’m sure the media is going to put a nasty spin on this story about how all hackers are bad.

“He had converted the television control into a device capable of controlling all the junctions on the line and wrote in the pages of a school exercise book where the best junctions were to move trams around and what signals to change.

“He treated it like any other schoolboy might a giant train set, but it was lucky nobody was killed. Four trams were derailed, and others had to make emergency stops that left passengers hurt. He clearly did not think about the consequences of his actions.”

Not that I am condoning this type of behaviour, but as we all know, curiosity sometimes gets the best of us. If anyone can gain that sort of access to public transport (with a modified TV remote control!) things are very wrong. What if it had been a terrorist? I’m sure it would be “dead” not “injured” in the headlines.

Link to Full Story

Frank's the editor in chief of tech.nocr.at. He can be found surfing the internet and playing with gadgets. Follow him on twitter @franklinhares

Filed under Hacking And Security · Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  • http://motorola-razr.info Free Motorola RAZR V3

    Oh, come on! Next we’re gonna’ be throwing Kevin Mitnick in jail again.

    Katl

    Reply – Quote
  • DigiP

    What really scares me is that someone WITH malicious intent DOES go out and do this, then people will get hurt. I applaude him for his skills and knowledge, but I think he is just too young to have an understanding of what his information could have been used for. Say he didn’t derail the trains, but instead posted it online how to do it. Someone would surely use it with ill intentions, I am sure. It’s usually not the information that is the problem, but who has and who uses that information. People are too imature or sometimes just downright evil to have access to things when it comes to the safety of others and while I think he may have shown great skill in what he accomplished, he should have enver used or disclosed this info directly to the public without first giving it to the proper authorities to fix the secuity of the issue at hand.

    Proof of concept to the right people should have been his course of action instead of a fun day at the train yard.

    Reply – Quote