Man arrested after ‘Islamophobic cyberattack’ on wifi at major railway stations

The 19 stations impacted by the cyberattack included London Bridge and London Euston, as well as Manchester Piccadilly and Edinburgh Waverley

London Paddington was among the stations impacted by the cyberattack on Wednesday night (PA)

A man has been arrested after passengers saw an Islamophobic message flash up when they tried to use the free wifi at some of the biggest railway stations in the country.

British Transport Police said the suspect is an employee of Global Reach Technology, which provides some wifi services to Network Rail.

He has been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and offences under the Malicious Communications Act 1988. No personal data is known to have been affected, the police added.

Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and 10 stations in London were all affected by the suspected cyberattack on Wednesday evening.

Birmingham New Street was one of the stations reported to have been affected (PA Wire)

Passengers logging on to the wifi at the stations reported seeing a webpage that was titled “We love you, Europe”. Underneath it was information that referred to terror attacks.

The wifi system was quickly taken offline and police were called in to investigate.

A spokesperson for British Transport Police said: “We received reports at around 5.03pm yesterday of a cyberattack displaying Islamophobic messaging on some Network Rail wifi services.”

Officers said they were working with Network Rail to investigate the Islamophobic cybersecurity incident “at pace”.

Network Rail, the group which manages tracks and train stations, said that given the nature of the wifi service provided, it did not believe any personal data had been impacted by the hack.

“Once our final security checks have been completed we anticipate the service will be restored by the weekend,” a spokesperson said.

Manchester Piccadilly was also impacted by the cyberattack (Simon Calder)

Telent, the third-party firm which provides wifi for Network Rail, said it was also investigating the incident.

A company spokesperson said: “We are aware of the cybersecurity incident affecting the public wifi at Network Rail’s managed stations and are investigating with Network Rail and other stakeholders.”

According to its website, Telent helps design, build, support and manage some of the UK’s “critical digital infrastructure”, and its other customers include Openreach, Transport for London (TfL), National Highways, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the NHS Ambulance Radio Programme.

It has not yet been confirmed if any of Telent’s other customers have been impacted by the incident.

The stations impacted are Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, Guildford, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, London Bridge, London Cannon Street, London Charing Cross, London Clapham Junction, London Euston, London King’s Cross, London Liverpool Street, London Paddington, London Victoria, London Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly and Reading.