Texas Digital Road Sign Hacked

The Texas Transportation Department today informed the public that one of their digital road signs, normally used for traffic conditions and amber alerts, was hacked last week. Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, confirmed that a portable traffic sign at Lamar Boulevard and West 15th Street, near the University of Texas at Austin, was hacked into during the early hours of Jan. 19.
The hacker wrote on the sign, "Zombies Ahead". "It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for," said Lippincott, who saw the sign during his morning commute. "Those signs are deployed for a reason to improve traffic conditions, let folks know there's a road closure."

Tampering with road signs is a misdemeanor offense in Texas and could include jail time if convicted. It's certainly not a type of sign you can climb up on and change the letters, the intruders would have had to break into the servers that manages the signs. This could have been a case where the city simply did not change the default passwords on the signs which are manufactured by IMAGO's ADDCO division. Leaving the default password unchanged could easily result in a hack by the use of software scanners if the servers were internet facing.

zombies sign