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.
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Good opportunity for the new polish government to show that they’re actually sane.
I wonder if they were taking notes from John Deere and the automotive industry or will it be the reverse here soon?
Just imagine all these vehicles that could be bricked for not going back to the stealerships for outrageous prices on parts and incompetent service.
Also the vehicles that could be disabled for not paying for device protection plan that allows your vehicle to operate safely. It would be a shame if your vehicle stopped working on your way to work or the hospital.
I suspect Tesla, BMW, and John Deere are the closest to this reality.
I sure hope the government doesn’t help with another great cash for clunkers national program to get rid of more cars too old for these measures. Sure is a great way to drive new car sales though…
Add Mercedes to that list of companies close to doing this
“The president of Newag contacted me,” Cieszyński wrote. "He claims that Newag fell victim to cybercriminals and it was not an intentional action by the company
Yes, those cybercriminals that once infiltrated in a business network, instead of stealing data or holding ransoms, hide multiple iterations in the code of a snippet that only benefits the corp. Sure, they exist
Also taking legal action against people who helped your customers resolve the consequences of such an attack seems perfectly normal and not at all contrary to that narrative.
It would be interesting to see if Alstom, Hyundai Rotem, and Stadler Rail are doing the same. They are sitting on billions in public sector contracts.
Stadler (sic)
?
The European Union is an antidemocratic corporate cartel.
The EU is in a constant struggle for its direction. Discounting it as a lost cause only allows malicious actors free reign. On the one hand, EU regulators take on tech monopolies, like forcing Microsoft to un-bundle Windows and Edge/Bing. And european courts have repeatedly struck down legislation that would allow for indiscriminate data retention.
On the other hand, the EU politicians are currently trying to sneak through a law that would force browsers to accept state-issued root certificates, allowing them to spy on and alter any and all internet communication, basically upending the trust-based system that keeps the internet secure currently. This law is part of the eIDAS initiative.
And I’m sure that with the new, EU-driven right to repair initiative, the train manufacturer will be forced to back down soon too.The right to repair proposal will sure have a list of exemptions, not to hurt the feelings of big commercial conglomerates.
Interesting, this needs some reading
Here is a link detailing the issues concerning root certificates in the eIDAS legislation, as it currently written and about to be voted on: https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/08/europe_eidas_browser/
Thanks! I stumbled across the Mozilla blog on it, too
Maybe you should stop huffing Orban’s farts.
No, I huff Marxist economist and ex-Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis’ farts.
Basically the wrong exhaust fumes.
Implying there are also the right exhaust fumes smh
Ah, those are extra spicy.
True, but that’s why it is somewhat functional. Otherwise it would be a mess, swinging back and forth between contradictory short term thinking.
The Arabian Gulf states are not democratic at all, and sometimes the governments go against the wishes of the people -mostly US-aligned foreign policies and social and economic liberalization-. But they sure can get shit done and massively. Kinda like China but on a smaller scale because all together the Arabian Gulf -without the foreigners- adds up to the population of one Chinese city.
#fuckyourdividends
