A man has been arrested in connection with a cyber vandalism attack that disrupted public WiFi at several of the UK’s major railway stations, police have confirmed.
The incident, which occurred on Wednesday, September 26, impacted stations including Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, and 10 London stations. Passengers attempting to log on to the public WiFi were instead shown messages referencing terror attacks in Europe, according to reports.
Manchester Evening News reported that the hacked WiFi landing page displayed the message “We love you, Europe” alongside information about terror attacks, which the British Transport Police (BTP) described as containing “Islamophobic messaging.”
On Thursday evening, BTP announced the arrest of a male employee from Global Reach, the company that provides WiFi services to Network Rail. He was arrested on suspicion of offenses under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
In a statement, BTP said: “Officers received reports just after 5 p.m. yesterday of a breach of some Network Rail WiFi services at railway stations displaying Islamophobic messaging.”
They clarified that the incident was limited to altering the splash pages, and no personal data was compromised.
Network Rail, which manages the affected stations, immediately suspended WiFi services nationwide following what they referred to as a “cyber security incident.” The only station not impacted was St Pancras.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Network Rail said it hoped to restore WiFi services by the weekend after completing necessary security checks.
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