Aussie motorists shocked as hackers take over digital billboard with porn
People have been shocked after a hacked digital billboard on a busy Brisbane road started displaying pornography.
The LED screen on Milton Road in Brisbane was looking normal up until 9.23am on Sunday, when it suddenly became X-rated.
The operator of the billboard Goa was shocked by the "abhorrent" act, confirming it ran for 3.5 minutes before being discovered by the company and immediately shut down.
“Within minutes of the breach occurring, our IT techs began an immediate shutdown and investigation,” the company said in a statement reported by the Brisbane Times.
“No other screen in our network was affected in any way, all continue to operate as scheduled."
Social media users react to hack
Despite some thinking it was funny, the hack has left most particularly enraged due to its close proximity to Milton State School.
"It's hilarious for a moment until you realise there's kids around. Like I'm all out for a practical joke but not like this," one person said on Reddit.
"If my kiddo saw this I'd be furious," said another.
"Exposing children or even other adults that haven't consented to sexually explicit material is a serious crime," a third person piped in.
The family-owned company that runs more than 70 digital billboards, were "particularly conscious" that "children and adolescents" could have seen the pornographic hack, and apologised in their statement.
“We regret the offence or distress that this may have caused to members of the public who evidenced this transmission,' they said according to the Brisbane Times.
Hack highlights need for better cyber security
On social media, comments about the breach were swamped with IT and cyber security specialists pressing for change to cyber security laws in Australia.
"Truly we need large industry wide reform in this area," an IT security worker said on Reddit. "It's genuinely depressing how bad data security is, even at the companies that try to do it right."
Cyber security specialists further claimed how "simple" it would've been to orchestrate this offence.
"Most cyber attacks are pretty simple," they said. "It's all about tricking people into giving you access rather than amazing decrypting/hacking skills, or getting access to a physical device."
"Reform needs to start from government defining what data is sensitive then prescribing rules around its ownership, geographic storage, and handling (encryption, use cases, storage periods, etc)," another said.
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Police investigating Brisbane incident
A Queensland Police spokesman told Yahoo News Australia "investigations are continuing" into the incident in Brisbane.
"Police have received a complaint after a secure advertising billboard structure on Milton Road was broken into on Sunday morning," they said.
"Police are conducting inquiries regarding possible CCTV and would encourage anyone with further information to come forward. Report reference number QP2202000580 should be quoted when contacting police about this matter."
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