Overview
- A 23-year-old university student used low-cost software-defined radio gear to copy THSR’s TETRA settings and transmit a “General Alarm” that forced four trains into emergency stop procedures for 48 minutes.
- THSR staff flagged a signal that did not match any issued radio, and police used station cameras and network logs to trace the source to a Taoyuan home where they seized 11 handheld radios, an SDR receiver, and a laptop.
- Authorities arrested the student and later released him on NT$100,000 bail, and prosecutors say potential charges tied to disrupting public transport and illegal equipment use could carry up to 10 years in prison.
- Investigators and local reports say the same radio parameters were left in place for about 19 years, which meant a cloned device could pass as trusted without detection or fresh authentication.
- The transport ministry has ordered a hardening plan for rail communications as experts urge basic RF defenses such as regular parameter rotation, strong device authentication, tested encryption, logging of odd signals, and tools to locate rogue transmitters.