According to WCAX News, someone hacked a trailer-mounted dynamic message sign in Colchester, Vermont to warn motorists to turn back or face an impending zombie invasion. To add insult to injury, the hackers protected their message with a password, requiring the construction company to turn the sign around until they could consult the manufacturer to get the master password.
While some of these signs can be programmed remotely, according to news reports, this instance was a case of someone leaving the key in the lock at the site. According to the literature from many of the manufacturers of these signs, they can be programmed by plugging in a laptop, perhaps with proprietary software. One wonders if that means it could be the work of a current or previous construction or highway employee, but it does point out how much we depend on some combination of security through obscurity and most people's innate goodness.
There was no word of whether the sign was previously dormant or had been warning of some other hazard, but authorities are not laughing, saying the hackers could face charges, including "making a false report."
This incident follows similar reports from Austin, Texas, Collinsville, Illinois, and Lubbock, Texas. Let's hope the National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation System Protocol (NTCIP) that networks the increasingly common permanent signs is more secure, or we will be seeing a lot more of these.
Are the authorities sure the report was false? Sorry, I just couldn't resist asking. X-)
Posted by: Linda Wang | 13 May 2009 at 05:09 AM