As he reported, the case of Newag trains was transferred to a higher level – from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Nowy Sącz to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Kraków. Last week, the former received a notification from the Internal Security Agency about a suspicion of committing a crime. Prosecutors from Krakow have already received all the necessary documents in this case.
The case of Newag trains transferred to Krakow. Who interfered with the software and why?
announced, in turn, that the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in the capital of Małopolska is tasked with checking “who and why introduced unacceptable blockages in the software of Newag trains from Nowy Sącz.” These programmatic blockages were the reason for the train failures, as we wrote about in more detail last week. Initially – despite the seriousness of the case – it was brought to the lowest level (i.e. to the district prosecutor’s office).
The scandal related to Newag trains is the result of last year’s mysterious failures, which for a long time could not be dealt with by specialists from SPS Mieczkowski, which services rolling stock for the Lower Silesian Railways. This was only solved by hackers from the Dragon Sector group, who claim that the Newag trains’ software contained locks that forced a “failure” after several days of stoppage in specific locations – e.g. service halls of Newag’s competitors.
“Rz” found that before the case was disclosed to the public, it was analyzed by the Internal Security Agency. Three months ago, the Internal Security Agency completed its analysis of the documentation and handed the case over to the prosecutor’s office in Nowy Sącz. “On October 6, 2023, the Internal Security Agency sent a notification to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Nowy Sącz on reasonable suspicion of committing crimes under Article 269 § 1 of the Penal Code and 286 § 1 of the Penal Code in the case regarding the Impuls train software from Newag based in Nowy Sącz” – wrote the ABW quoted by the newspaper.
The first article concerns the destruction, damage or deletion of IT data “of particular importance for the country’s defense, communication security, the functioning of government administration, another state body or state institution or local government”, and the second article concerns fraud – writes “Rzeczpospolita”. Both are punishable by (up to 8 years) imprisonment.
Newag denies all allegations. He talks about conspiracy and black PR
Newag denies the allegations and explains that it has never and will not introduce “any solutions that lead to intentional failures” into its software. He also claims that it is “slander from our competition, which is conducting an illegal black PR campaign against us.” Additionally, it was written in a statement published last week that the case is a “conspiracy theory” created “for the needs of the media” by a company servicing rolling stock for the Lower Silesian Railways.
“Rynek Kolejowy” adds that the company announced last week that it had requested the Office of Rail Transport to withdraw from service vehicles “subjected to the activities of unknown hackers”. However, UTK replied to the newspaper that so far no letter has been received from Newag.
The train manufacturer claims that it has itself fallen victim to cybercriminals, although it does not explain exactly who attacked it and for what purpose. also the president of Newag, but the analysis that the minister saw “indicated something else.” Could and who could have introduced any modifications to the software of Newag trains? This is to be clarified by the prosecutor’s office.
We have sent a request to Newag for comment on this matter, but have not received a response yet.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
