Information Madness

Berlin Hacking Conference has summarized that hackers could shut down train lines. Hackers have been able to shut down web sites by cramming them with web traffic. Now, they could use the same approach to shut down the computers that control the train switching systems. These switching systems of trains are at risk of attacks that are known as `denials of service’. They could cause long disruptions to rail services. The trains may not crash but their service could be disrupted for quite some time.

Denials of service are one of the easiest forms of cyber attack and hackers can involve a large number of computers to affect the targeted system with internet traffic. Hackers have already used this approach to attack sites of government agencies and businesses all around the world.

The train switching systems that enable the trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction have so far been separated from the online world but the communication between trains and the switching is handled quite frequently by using wireless technology.

GSM-R is a mobile technology that is being used for trains and their alignment. This technology is actually more secure than the usual GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) that is used in cell phones. The security experts at the Berlin Conference expressed their fears that it is against the GSM-R technology that they expect the attacks to be targeted. The software encryption keys which are required for securing the communication between trains and switching systems are downloaded to physical media like USB (Universal Serial Bus) sticks and then sent for installing. This raises the risk of these keys ending up in the wrong hands.