Physical Attacks on the Railway System

Abstract

Recent attacks encouraged public interest in physical security for railways. Knowing about and learning from previous attacks is necessary to secure against them. This paper presents a structured data set of physical attacks against railways. We analyze the data regarding the used means, the railway system's target component, the attacker type, and the geographical distribution of attacks. The results indicate a growing heterogeneity of observed attacks in the recent decade compared to the previous decades and centuries, making protecting railways more complex.