Policeman among those arrested over disruption of Poland’s train system

A Polish police officer is among two men who have been detained and charged over the unauthorised stopping of trains with the use of a shortwave radio signal on Sunday in the northeastern Podlaskie province.

The arrests took place after the mass disruption of trains in various parts Poland over the weekend, during which the Russian national anthem also reportedly played over railway staff radios. Opposition leader Donald Tusk has called on the authorities to urgently explain if and how a police officer was involved.

However, a leading cybersecurity website has argued that the incidents were most likely a “prank”.

The two men, aged 24 and 29, are accused of using a so-called “radio-stop” signal, which activates the emergency brake on trains, three times on Sunday morning. As a result, several trains in the region came to a standstill.

They were detained at an apartment in the city of Białystok around 1 p.m. the same day. The public prosecutor’s office has presented them with charges of instilling a sense of threat and causing an imminent danger to land traffic, for which they face up to eight years in prison.

Media soon reported that one of the men was a local police officer. This information was later confirmed by Podlaskie Police.

“The provincial police commander in Białystok has initiated disciplinary proceedings and issued a decision with immediate effect to suspend the officer, who was charged by the prosecutor’s office. The procedure for dismissal from service was also initiated,” said Podlaskie Police on social media.

Their spokesman also confirmed the information to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) but refused to give any more details. Prosecutors investigating the case have also declined to provide any information beyond the crimes the men have been charged with.

Unauthorised radio-stop signals were also broadcast overnight from Friday to Saturday in the West Pomeranian province, reported railroad operator PKP PLK. That caused delays on more than 20 connections.

“The relevant services, including the Internal Security Agency (ABW), the police, railway security and the carriers…were immediately notified of the incident,” said PKP PLK, adding that the situation did not pose a threat to passengers and only affected train schedules.

Several other unauthorised uses of radio-stop signals were also reported in other parts of the country over the weekend, as well as some incidents in which the Russian anthem as well as a speech by Vladimir Putin played over radios.

According to Niebezpiecznik, a cybersecurity news website, it is not possible to call these incidents “cyberattacks” or “hacking”, as the transmission of the radio-stop signal does not require hacking into any systems, the signal is not encrypted, and its transmission does not require any authentication.

The instructions on how to create a radio-stop signal are public. Based on that, anyone can learn how to transmit the signal, how long it should last and on which frequency it should be transmitted, the website noted, adding that such incidents have happened in Poland in the past.

“Frankly speaking, we are surprised that in view of the current tense situation at our border it is only now that someone has come up with the idea of using this mechanism for ‘pranks’,” wrote Niebezpiecznik, referring to increased tensions on Poland’s borders with Russia and Belarus, as well as the war in Ukraine.

“We deliberately speak of ‘pranks’ because in no way can the emission of this signal be considered a ‘cyber-attack on the Polish railway’, as some people unfortunately claim, inadvertently supporting disinformation in this regard,” the website said.

A deputy interior minister, Paweł Szafernaker, however, sees the series of incidents that disrupted Polish railroad operations last week as an attempt to “destabilise” the country ahead of the upcoming elections, scheduled for 15 October.

“The parliamentary elections are coming up, and there is a war going on [in Ukraine]. It is about a kind of destabilisation,” said Szefernaker in an interview with RMF FM.

“I am sure that in this pre-election period, these types of situations can happen. However, we have procedures that have worked; there has been no threat to rail safety, and I think that is the most important thing,” he added.

The spokesman for Poland’s security services, Stanisław Żaryn, noted that, while similar events had happened in the past, the context of the war in Ukraine requires the Polish state to take such incidents seriously.

“At the moment, many incidents or events may be due to certain operations of the Russian secret services. We cannot downplay various incidents. These are topics to be checked, but there is no reason to sow panic,” he said in an interview with Polski Radio.

Meanwhile, the opposition has called on the government to explain the alleged involvement of a police officer in the incident.

“Is it true that a police officer from the Operational Technology Department is among those [detained]?” asked Donald Tusk, leader of Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party. “On whose instructions was he acting? The Polish people want to know what really happened!”

Meanwhile, an MP from Tusk’s party, Robert Tyszkowicz, called on the interior minister to dismiss the national chief of police and the provincial police commander in Podlaskie.

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Main image credit: Jakub Pabis / Unsplash 

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.