IT Scandal Surrounding Newag Trains: Legal Proceedings and Defamation Accusations

Polish railway equipment manufacturer Newag has found itself at the center of a major IT scandal, this is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

The company has filed a lawsuit in the Warsaw District Court against the service company SPS and the hacker group Dragon Sector, accusing them of defamation and copyright infringement.

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According to Newag, interference by these parties in the train software has resulted in significant reputational damages, which the company estimates at €1.37 million.

The conflict revolves around Dragon Sector discovering so-called “backdoors” in the software of Impuls trains, which programmed train failures when serviced by third-party companies and upon reaching one million kilometers.

In 2022, several trains indeed failed to start after repairs conducted by SPS.

However, after these blocks were removed, the trains resumed functioning.

Newag claims that interference in the software makes the trains unsafe. The company also announced its intention to provide an open license for the software to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The service company SPS, in turn, is preparing a counterclaim, demanding an apology from Newag and compensation for losses related to the downtime of the rolling stock.

The case is also under investigation by the prosecutor’s office and the national antitrust service.

This scandal has attracted significant attention both within Poland and beyond.

Many cybersecurity and IT law specialists are closely monitoring the developments, as this case could set a precedent in the field of cybersecurity and software copyright protection in the transport industry.

Amid these events, Newag faces the challenging task of restoring its reputation and customer trust.

How the situation will unfold remains to be seen, but it is already clear that this case will become an important milestone in the history of cybersecurity and intellectual property protection.

Photo: Adam Haertle

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