PERSONAL data belonging to millions of train passengers could be in the hands of hackers following a major cyberattack on Spain’s rail network.
Unknown attackers targeted the websites of state-owned rail operator Renfe and infrastructure manager Adif last week, stealing around 150 million data records, according to El Mundo.
The information is understood to include names and email addresses, although the full extent of the breach remains under investigation.
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Renfe has said there is currently no evidence that hackers accessed bank details, financial information, payment methods, ID numbers or other particularly sensitive data.
The company also said there was no evidence so far that the stolen information had been publicly released.
The attack reportedly began through Adif’s systems before reaching systems operated by Renfe, which were connected to the compromised infrastructure.
Adif detected unusual activity on Thursday and launched an investigation, while also reporting the incident to Spain’s National Cryptologic Centre.
Neither company’s railway operations were affected, meaning trains continued to run normally despite the cyberattack.
Renfe said it had already faced repeated hacking attempts over several weeks, all of which had previously been detected and blocked.
The latest breach prompted the company to bring its affected systems offline and hire independent cybersecurity specialists to help investigate and contain the attack.
The incident has raised fresh concerns over the security of personal information held by major public infrastructure providers.
Cybersecurity experts have warned that stolen names and email addresses can still be valuable to criminals, particularly when combined with information obtained from other data breaches.
Investigators are now working to establish exactly how the hackers gained access, how much information was taken and whether any of it has been circulated online.
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