Taiwan rail agency finds three flaws after radio hijacking disrupted high-speed trains

A stolen radio connection brought Taiwan’s high-speed rail service to an abrupt halt during the busy Qingming holiday period, exposing three weaknesses that authorities said the operator has now corrected.

On April 5, an unauthorized user transmitted an alert on the Taichung section of the Taiwan High Speed Rail network. Three passenger trains made manual emergency stops, while an empty repositioning train also stopped. Staff inspected the route under safety procedures, and normal operations resumed at 11:43 p.m. The disruption caused a combined 48 minutes of delays.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Railway Bureau conducted a special inspection on May 8 under Article 41 of the Railway Act. It identified deficiencies in the monitoring of TETRA radio handsets, management of TETRA identification numbers, and the storage and administrative control of handheld radios.

The bureau said the operator had completed corrective measures. Taiwan High Speed Rail added a function to detect registrations of the same TETRA ID in different locations within a short period. It recalled all radio handsets, updated their ID codes, and adopted random numbers and encrypted reading settings. It also reviewed its radio-handling procedures and notified employees to follow them, with the rules to be incorporated into formal regulations.

The investigation identified a 23-year-old student at Providence University, surnamed Lin, as the alleged offender. Authorities said he studied radios and communications protocols as a personal interest, held a third-class amateur radio license, and exchanged technical knowledge in a hobbyist group. The Railway Bureau recommended evaluating more advanced authentication and encryption technology. The operator said it had already added monitoring and inspection mechanisms and activated an encrypted identity-authentication system to prevent unauthorized access.