In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is now threatening to sue the hackers who were hired by the independent repair company to fix it.
After breaking trains simply because an independent repair shop had worked on them, NEWAG is now demanding that trains fixed by hackers be removed from service.
This sounds egregious. I don’t really have any knowledge on the subject, but to play the devil’s advocate, could it be possible that the train was bricked because while it can technically still run, it might have some things broken that could lead to hazardous consequences? Again, I have no knowledge on this, I would love if someone who knows more about trains could shed light on this.
