Public Wi-Fi Compromised in UK Train Stations

A cybersecurity incident is being investigated after Islamophobic messages were displayed to users through a compromised Wi-Fi landing page.

Network Rail, the non-departmental public body, is probing the incident, which affected 20 stations, all managed by the same body; 10 of the stations are in London, the rest are distributed across key commuter stations in Reading, Leeds, Glasglow Central, and others.

"We received reports at around 1703 yesterday [Sept. 25] of a cyberattack displaying Islamophobic messaging on some Network Rail Wi-Fi services," said the British Transport Police (BTP), which is also involved in the case. 

Telent, the communications company that operates Network Rail's Wi-Fi, reported that it is aware of the incident and is also involved in the investigation to identify the root cause.

"Nation states and criminals are increasingly targeting key third-party suppliers to cause widespread disruption to multiple industries at once, and the attack on the rail service is just the latest example of this," said Dan Schiappa, chief product and services officer at Arctic Wolf, in an emailed statement to Dark Reading. "It is vital every company, regardless of whether it is critical infrastructure or not, ensures the suppliers it works with have strong cybersecurity otherwise they are leaving a huge hole in their defenses."

And while it may be too soon to point fingers at any party involved, as the investigation continues, Network Rail has suspended Wi-Fi services for the time being.