A man has been arrested after a cyber vandalism attack targeted public wifi at some of the UK’s busiest railway stations, including 10 in London. The attack disrupted services at major transport hubs, including Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley, and Glasgow Central, as well as stations across London, on Wednesday, September 25.
Passengers attempting to access the wifi at these stations were instead met with messages containing information about terror attacks in Europe. According to reports, the hacked landing page displayed the message “We love you, Europe” and included what British Transport Police (BTP) described as “Islamophobic messaging.”
The British Transport Police confirmed on Thursday evening that a male employee of Global Reach, the company responsible for providing wifi services to Network Rail, had been arrested. He was taken into custody on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
“Officers received reports just after 5 PM yesterday of a breach of some Network Rail wifi services at railway stations which were displaying Islamophobic messaging,” said a BTP spokesperson. “The abuse of access was restricted to the defacement of the splash pages, and no personal data is known to have been affected.”
Network Rail, which manages the affected stations, swiftly suspended wifi services nationwide following the incident, describing it as a “cyber security incident.” St Pancras station was the only Network Rail-managed location not impacted by the breach.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Network Rail expressed its intention to restore wifi services by the weekend, pending the completion of security checks to prevent further incidents.
The full list of stations affected includes:
- Birmingham New Street
- Bristol Temple Meads
- Edinburgh Waverley
- Glasgow Central
- Guildford
- Leeds
- Liverpool Lime Street
- London Bridge
- London Cannon Street
- London Charing Cross
- London Clapham Junction
- London Euston
- London King’s Cross
- London Liverpool Street
- London Paddington
- London Victoria
- London Waterloo
- Manchester Piccadilly
- Reading
The arrest and disruption underscore the growing challenges of maintaining cyber security in public infrastructure, as authorities continue to investigate the extent of the breach and ensure the security of Network Rail’s systems.
