Polish Train Maker Is Suing the Hackers Who Exposed Its Anti-Repair Tricks

ifixit.com

22 points·gnabgib··4 comments

According to [1], the cost of one train from this manufacturer is over 10 Million Euros. Why would they play these shenanigans in a competitive market at the risk of pissing off their customers? Are other train vendors doing the same?

Or is this a local lock-in where it is hard as a Polish railway not to buy from the one Polish manufacturer?

[1] https://rollingstockworld.com/passenger-cars/latest-procurem...

The really sad thing is that the manufacturer in question, NEWAG, simply makes good trains. But for whatever reason they decided they are goingto fight the end of servicing monopoly with underhanded methods (law forcibly disaggregated servicing from manufacturers).

But it is also very entrenched in local community, not nationwide, but the city etc where it's located.

Imagine the mentality from various stories, movies etc where a big factory owner rules the local community because they own the biggest factory that everything else depends on? Somewhat similar vibe goes with NEWAG.

The train maker can't do anything else but to sue. If they won't sue, they are leaving themselves open for being sued by competition for unfair practices. But if they will sue the hackers and will win on some technicality (i.e. hackers can't prove that data from these units are real and not fake) then train maker can point to this case and prevent competition from suing them at the first place.

It is a desperation move, but it may work. If they won't sue and win, competitors will rip them to shreds.

The polish government should halt all orders and service till the company stops bricking their trains.

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