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Security vulnerability on U.S. trains that let anyone activate the brakes on the rear car was known for 13 years — operators refused to fix the issue until now
Wireless hardware to seriously disrupt rail transport costs less than $500.
According to Hardware Security Researcher Neils on X (formerly Twitter), they first discovered the issue in 2012 when software-defined radios (SDR) started becoming more popular. Thus, anyone with the hardware (available for less than $500) and know-how can easily issue a brake command without the train driver’s knowledge, potentially compromising the safety of the transport operation. What’s frustrating for Neils is that the AAR refused to acknowledge the vulnerability back in 2012, saying that it was just a theoretical issue and that they’d only believe it if it happened in real life.
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