A man has been arrested after Islamophobic messages appeared on the free Wi-Fi network of some of the UK’s major railway stations.

British Transport Police said the suspect is from Global Reach Technology, a company that provides some Wi-Fi services to Network Rail.

As a precautionary measure, Wi-Fi services were suspended on Wednesday night at 19 major stations, including London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly, and Birmingham New Street.

Passengers could not access the Wi-Fi network and instead received racist, Islamophobic messages on their devices.

According to reports, users attempting to access the Wi-Fi were redirected to a webpage titled “We love you, Europe.” The page allegedly contained Islamophobic content and referenced previous terrorist attacks.

The Wi-Fi system, which is managed by communications group Telent while the internet service itself is provided by Global Reach Technology, was promptly taken offline and police were notified.

“The man is an employee of Global Reach Technology who provide some Wi-Fi services to Network Rail. He has been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and offences under the Malicious Communications Act 1988,” said British Transport Police.

“Officers received reports just after 5pm yesterday (25 September) of a breach of some Network Rail Wi-Fi services at railway stations which were displaying Islamophobic messaging.

“The abuse of access was restricted to the defacement of the splash pages, and no personal data is known to have been affected.”

“Cyber vandalism”

Telent confirmed the incident was an act of “cyber vandalism which originated from within the Global Reach network and was not a result of a network security breach or a technical failure.”

“Through investigations with Global Reach, the provider of the Wi-Fi landing page, it has been identified that an unauthorised change was made to the Network Rail landing page and the matter is now subject to criminal investigations by the British Transport Police,” it said. 

“No personal data has been affected. As a precaution, Telent temporarily suspended all use of Global Reach services while verifying that no other Telent customers were impacted.”

It added the aim is to restore public Wi-Fi services by the weekend.

A spokesperson for Network Rail, the group which manages tracks and train hubs, said: “Last night the public Wi-Fi at 19 of Network Rail’s managed stations was subjected to a cyber security incident and was quickly taken off-line. The incident is subject to a full investigation.

“The Wi-Fi is provided by a third party, is self-contained and is a simple ‘click and connect’ service that doesn’t collect any personal data. Once our final security checks have been completed we anticipate the service will be restored by the weekend.”

Full list of stations affected

• Birmingham New Street;
• Bristol Temple Meads;
• Edinburgh Waverley;
• Glasgow Central;
• Guildford;
• Leeds;
• Liverpool Lime Street;
• London Bridge;
• London Cannon Street;
• London Charing Cross;
• London Clapham Junction;
• London Euston;
• London King’s Cross;
• London Liverpool Street;
• London Paddington;
• London Victoria;
• London Waterloo;
• Manchester Piccadilly;
• Reading