Attacks on railway projects: Cyber attack on the Brenner Base Tunnel company

The project company for the Brenner Base Tunnel between Austria and Italy has become the target of a cyber attack. BBT SE, which is building the rail tunnel, announced that the unknown perpetrators accessed parts of data that were accessible from the Internet. The “Tiroler Tageszeitung” had previously reported.

This targeted attack in mid-October did not pose any danger to the construction or subsequent operation of the 64-kilometer-long tunnel, a BBT spokesman told the German Press Agency. High-security data is not affected. The spokesman did not provide any information about possible perpetrators or background. The investigation is being conducted by Italian authorities as the BBT is based in Bolzano.

The Brenner Base Tunnel is considered an important European infrastructure project. The 11.7 billion euro structure is expected to significantly shorten journeys between Germany and Italy from 2034.

Also attack on the German-Danish rail tunnel project

Most recently, the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel project between Germany and Denmark was affected by a cyber attack in mid-October. The attack on the contractor Femern Link Contractors (FLC) temporarily affected several of the construction site's IT systems, as the parent project company Femern A/S announced.

This approximately 18 kilometer long tunnel is intended to connect the German Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland and thereby shorten the travel time by train between Hamburg and Copenhagen to around two and a half hours.