this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2025
89 points (100.0% liked)

Europe

7680 readers
633 users here now

News and information from Europe ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Authorities in Denmark are urgently studying how to close an apparent security loophole in hundreds of Chinese-made electric buses that enables them to be remotely deactivated.

The investigation comes after transport authorities in Norway, where the Yutong buses are also in service, found that the Chinese supplier had remote access for software updates and diagnostics to the vehiclesโ€™ control systems โ€“ which could be exploited to affect buses while in transit

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

No, this is not a 'Chinese' problem, but as a European I would rather have this problem with a European supplier than with a Chinese supplier for having control over the trains on the continent (or my car, or any technology).

[โ€“] poVoq@slrpnk.net 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don't see how that makes a big difference. As the Polish example clearly shows, the laws right now are inadequate to deal with this and it took 3rd party hackers to reverse-engineer it after the company extorted significant amounts of money from the operator to re-enable the trains. And the icing on the cake is that now these hackers are in court, not the company.

And from an IT security perspective, it doesn't matter much to an attacker if the remote operated backdoor to shut down these busses is put there by a Chinese or European company (which would likely be using Chinese tech for that anyways).

[โ€“] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

it doesnโ€™t matter much to an attacker if the remote operated backdoor to shut down these busses is put there by a Chinese or

It does matter, one major reason being that the European supplier operates under European jurisdictions and is easier to be held accountable.

European company (which would likely be using Chinese tech for that anyways).

Wherever that's the case, it must apparently be changed, one major reason being national security (the same reason why China is blocking European and other non-Chinese vendors in its domestic markets, btw).

[Edit typo.]

[โ€“] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Accountable based on what laws? The real issue is that these things are perfectly legal regardless of who does it and that there is also almost no way to hold a supplier accountable for software security breaches (besides the fact that it is too late then anyways).

[โ€“] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Accountable based on what laws?

On the laws we have in European democracies that can be changed and adapted as needed (unlike in China, where this can't be done).

[โ€“] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Ok so you agree that there is a need to make laws here in Europe about it and subject any supplier to them regardless of where their HQ is located? No need to answer that ๐Ÿ˜…

[โ€“] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

In principle I'd agree, but I have a nitpick: The laws must say that those that built infrastructure must be European countries with their HQ in Europe (not foreign-owned subsidiaries with European HQ).

[โ€“] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 hours ago

That would be likely incompatible with WTO agreements and usually leads to local quasi monopolists charging absurd prices to government run service providers. And it wouldn't solve the likely issue of European companies buying the needed software and hardware from abroad anyway.