Techies and trains have always had a fairly close relationship, but some people seem to take that relationship to toxic levels. About a month ago, a 23-year-old Taiwanese student "hacked" the country's high-speed rail line using an SDR (Software-Defined Radio) filter and radios, remotely broadcasting a General Alarm sign, and triggering a manual emergency braking procedure.
The event brought four trains to a standstill for 48 minutes until the situation was verified as a false alarm, with reportedly no hard stops executed. Lin, the mind behind the operation, sailed through "seven verification layers" thanks to the fact that the TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) system in use hadn't had its cryptographic keys rotated in 19 years.
