Taiwan High-Speed Rail Emergency Braking Hack: How a Student Stopped the Trains and Exposed a Major Security Gap
Publish Date: 2026-05-06 19:11:00
Source Domain: securityaffairs.com
Taiwan High-Speed Rail Emergency Braking Hack: How a Student Stopped the Trains and Exposed a Major Security Gap
Pierluigi Paganini
May 06, 2026
Taiwan high‑speed rail was disrupted after a 23‑year‑old student spoofed signals and triggered an emergency alarm, stopping four trains for nearly an hour.
Taiwan high‑speed rail system, one of the most important pieces of national infrastructure, was thrown into chaos during the Qingming Festival holiday when several trains suddenly came to an unexpected halt. Experts initially investigated a technical glitch but soon discovered the incident was caused by a cyber intrusion carried out by a 23-year-old university student.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month.” reported the Taipei Times. “Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices.”
Authorities revealed that the student, identified only by his surname Lin, used radio equipment and software tools bought online to imitate the communication signals used inside Taiwan High-Speed Rail (THSR). By doing so, he triggered a general emergency alarm, forcing train operators to stop four trains, disrupting service for nearly an hour and delaying hundreds of passengers heading home from the holiday.
The student exploited weaknesses in TETRA, the radio communication system used by THSR for nearly two decades. Before transmitting anything, Lin…
