14 DAY TRIAL // A traffic sign from the city of Austin, Texas was broken into by unknown individuals who altered the displayed message to read “Zombies Ahead.” Hackers claim that the signs can be tampered with easily because their control panels are regularly left open and the default access password is not changed.
Early Austin commuters that passed through the intersection of Lamar Boulevard and West 15th Street on January 19 were warned by a traffic sign, in a true “I Am Legend” style, that the end of the world was coming. “The end is near... Caution... Zombies ahead... Run for cold climate,” the full message read.
City officials explained that unidentified vandals broke the padlock to the sign's control panel, hacked the access password and typed in the new message. The message stayed up for several hours because the hackers also reset the password to make it hard for the officials to quickly restore the sign.
Obviously, the motorists who saw it did not run for their lives, but found the message hilarious. Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation was one of the people driving by the sign that morning. "It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for," he commented for Fox News. Wayne Haggard, owner of Sterling Construction, the company that installed the signs, also thought it was amusing. "It's Austin. We have a sense of humor. Let it go," he told a local TV station.
However, city officials do not display the same sense of humor. They pointed out that the police had been notified and that it was a criminal act. "This sign was broken into, it was not just a 'walk up and change the sign' kind of thing," said Sara Hartley, spokeswoman for Austin Public Works. “The sign’s content was humorous, but the act of changing it wasn’t,” she concluded.
Tampering with road signs is a class C misdemeanor in Texas and can bring punishments ranging from fines to even jail time, depending on the seriousness of the incident. Coincidently, members of the i-hacked community published an article explaining in detail how to tamper with such an electronic sign, illustrating their poor security. They even provide the default password, or instructions on how to reset the control panel to the default password, in the eventuality that it has been changed.
Clearly, this time, the incident was harmless, but such actions are potentially dangerous. Instead of warnings about zombies, the vandals could post propagandistic, political or vulgar messages. Other, more believable, fake warnings could also be displayed, possibly creating panic. ADDCO, the company that produces such signs for which i-hacked published tampering instructions, said it takes this very seriously and is analyzing the information in order to mitigate the attack. Notices are also being sent to their customers, in order to inform them about the vulnerability, which opens door to abuse.