Employee arrested over Islamophobic cyber attack on public wifi at major UK railway stations
A man has been arrested in connection with a cyber vandalism attack that targeted public wifi networks at some of the largest railway stations in the UK, displaying Islamophobic messages.
The hack, which occurred on Wednesday, affected wifi services at 19 major stations, including 10 in London.
British Transport Police confirmed that the suspect is an employee of Global Reach Technology, a company that provides wifi services to Network Rail. He was arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
The force added: “Officers received reports just after 5pm yesterday (September 25) of a breach of some Network Rail wifi services at railway stations which were displaying Islamophobic messaging. The abuse of access was restricted to the defacement of the splash pages, and no personal data is known to have been affected.”
The affected London stations were Euston, Victoria, King’s Cross, London Bridge, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Clapham Junction, and Waterloo.
Other stations across the UK that were targeted include Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central, Leeds City, Liverpool Lime Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Edinburgh Waverley, Reading, and Guildford.