Cyberattack on Brenner Base Tunnel company

The company behind the Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT) between Austria and Italy has been the target of a cyberattack. 

BBT SE, which is constructing the railway tunnel, announced on Saturday that the unknown perpetrators had gained access to some data via the internet. 

However, this targeted attack, which took place in mid-October, did not pose any risks to the construction or future operation of the 64-kilometre-long tunnel, a BBT spokesman told dpa. 

High-security data was not affected, he said. The spokesman did not provide any details regarding possible perpetrators or the motives behind the attack. 

The investigation is being conducted by the Italian authorities, as BBT is based in the Italian city of Bolzano, also known as Bozen.

The Brenner Base Tunnel is a major European infrastructure project. The €11.7 billion ($13 billion) rail tunnel is set to significantly shorten journeys between Germany and Italy from 2034 onwards.

Elsewhere, the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel project between Germany and Denmark was also hit by a cyberattack in mid-October. The attack on the contractor, Femern Link Contractors (FLC), temporarily affected several IT systems at the construction site, according to the parent project company, Femern A/S.

This tunnel, approximately 18 kilometres long, is intended to link the German Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland, thereby reducing the journey time by train between Hamburg and Copenhagen to around two and a half hours.