A
man


was
arrested
last
night
following
a
British
Transport
Police
investigation
into
a
cyber
attack
affecting
the
WiFi
networks
at
stations
managed
by
Network
Rail.

The
man
now
being
questioned
is
suspected
of
committing
offences
under
the
Computer
Misuse
Act
1990
and
the
Malicious
Communications
Act
1988.

Network
Rail
said
the
WiFi
at
its
19
stations
is
provided
by
a
third
party
and
doesn’t
collect
personal
data.

The
BBC
reported
that
passengers
at
Network
Rail’s
19
managed
stations
said
phone
screens
showed
‘dodgy’
popups
and
‘bizarre
security
alerts’,
which
British
Transport
Police
described
as
‘Islamophobic
messaging’,
but
there
are
no
reports
of
related
incidents
on
other
railway
computer
networks.

Network
Rail
employs
Telent
to
manage
its
station
WiFi,
and
BTP
said
the
man
now
being
questioned
is
an
employee
of
Global
Reach
Technology,
a
contractor
of
Telent.

British
Transport
Police
added:
‘The
abuse
of
access
was
restricted
to
the
defacement
of
the
splash
pages,
and
no
personal
data
is
known
to
have
been
affected.’

The
attack
was
the
second
this
month.
Transport
for
London
is
still
recovering
from
a
breach
earlier
in
September
which
is
thought
to
have
compromised
data
on
5,000
TfL
passengers,
including
Oyster
card
holders.

A
drama
series
started
on
BBC1
on
15
September
about
a
major
cyber
attack
on
railway
systems.
The
six
part
series
Nightsleeper
is
about
an
overnight
train
on
the
Glasgow
to
London
route
which
becomes
out
of
control.