14 year old hacks train – Security by Obscurity Fails

14 year old hacks train – Security by Obscurity Fails .. yet again!

If you haven’t seen this story yet then you’ll be in for a surprise. A 14 year old boy in Poland hacked into the train control system and was able to take control of the train junctions. Several trains derailed causing numerous injuries, but luckily nothing worse.

Based on the information in the articles, the boy’s “hack” was simply building a device that could send the correct signals to the train track control system. The device was created from a TV remote control and communicated with the train controls over infra-red.

Security by obscurity never works long term. The sooner people realize it, the safer we all will be. No matter whether it’s utilities, hardware, operating systems and programs. And as we see in this story…people can get hurt when it fails.

So, when will “they” start hiring people with real knowledge that can think out of the box?!

Yeah, I know. That was a rhetorical question. Forget I mentioned it.