A somewhat unusual incident occurred in the Mexican state of Veracruz. According to experts in ethical hacking, an electronic billboard located in the Boca del Río region displayed pornographic images for a few minutes. This is a touristic area, so the adult content was appreciated by quite a few people.
For nearly ten minutes, the giant screen showed images of people in sexual positions with the logo of the widely known explicit content website Pornhub.
In this regard, the local government issued a statement mentioning that the billboard was deactivated as soon as the report on the incident was received. In addition, local officials shut down the screen and asked the company to disable the rest of its advertising screens until the incident is investigated. While the authorities and the company attribute this to a human factor error, ethical hacking specialists do not rule out the possibility of a hacker’s intervention.
In the event of a hacking incident, this is not the first time that one of those screens’ systems is compromised by unauthorized users in Mexico. Last year, an advertisement located on one of Mexico City’s most important avenues was compromised by an unidentified threat actor; just like in the incident in Veracruz, this hacker took control of the giant screen to display pornographic content.
The incident went viral thanks to some images captured by surprised motorists driving around the area. However, the authorities and the affected company did not disclose further reports of the incident, so to date it is unknown whether the person responsible acted for fun or if the operating company of these advertisements was the victim of a cyberattack campaign.
According to ethical hacking specialists, because these billboards are controlled by simple software from desktop equipments, it is relatively easy for any user with minimal knowledge to alter their operation or content shown on the screens.
One of the most remembered cases occurred a couple of years ago in Cardiff, Wales, where a hacker took control of one of these advertisements, located on one of the city’s main streets, to display images related to far-right political ideology as well as posters featuring the image of Big Brother, the popular character from George Orwell’s book ‘1984’. Local authorities mentioned that the hacker achieved this after stealing the login credentials of TeamViewer, the remote control software for computer systems.
Another recently viral hacked billboard was identified in Texas, where the contents of a transit electronic screen were altered to display the phrase “Impeach the bastard,” referring to President Donald Trump and the impeachment possibility he faces.
One of the most recent, relevant incidents occurred in Auckland, where screens from the Asics sportswear store were hacked to display pornography for more than 8 hours, as reported by the ethical hacking experts from the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS). Because the incident occurred during the early morning, it was not possible to disable the screens until the store employees began their workday.
So far, the motivations of those responsible for the cyberattack are unknown.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
