Oz railway lets newspaper photograph train keys
Police are now saying that yesterday’s Melbourne train-heist-and-wreck was possible because miscreants bought stolen keys online.
The vandalism, the cost of which is now estimated at AU$3 million rather than the original $2 million, involved people getting into an idle train at Hurstbridge station, starting it, and taking it on a 50-metre trip through the railyard.
The train halted by a “derail block” which then tipped it into another train.
However, in reporting the issue of stolen keys, Melbourne newspaper The Age compounded the problem: it showed a photograph of “universal keys” in sufficient detail for them to be reproduced.
The publication is reminiscent of the emergence in September of 3D printed copies of TSA master luggage-keys, copied from a picture published by the Washington Post – except that a train is much bigger and more dangerous than most suitcases.
That was noticed by Twitter user @AnthonyBriggs:
.@theage It’s much easier since you posted photos of the universal keys, including the type code. (Censoring mine) pic.twitter.com/K89c1DqNSL
— Neo luddite (@AnthonyBriggs) November 12, 2015
The image of the keys doesn’t appear on The Age’s online story about keys being sold on the black market. So it’s only available to … well, pretty much the whole world by now, or soon.
There is, apparently, a program to replace the keys with more complex entry mechanisms, but this is “in its infancy” according to Victoria’s Metro Trains. ®
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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/12/oz_railway_lets_newspaper_photograph_train_keys/