[Ninja Duck]

Construction signs warn of zombies
Hackers change public safety message
Updated: Friday, 13 Feb 2009, 11:56 AM CST
Published : Wednesday, 28 Jan 2009, 8:29 PM CST
* Shannon Wolfson

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin drivers making their morning commute were in for a surprise when two road signs on a busy stretch of road were taken over by hackers. The signs near the intersection of Lamar and Martin Luther King boulevards usually warn drivers about upcoming construction, but Monday morning they warned of "zombies ahead."

"I thought it was pretty funny," said University of Texas sophomore Jane Shin, who saw the signs while driving down Lamar Bouelvard with friends Sunday night. "We wondered who did it."

The City of Austin does not own the signs, but they are responsible for the message. The contractor on the construction project owns the signs. A city spokesperson said the hacked messages were only up for a few hours, until the construction project manager saw them during his morning commute and immediately ordered them to be changed back.

"Even though this may seem amusing to a lot of people, this is really serious, and it is a crime," said Austin Public Works spokesperson Sara Hartley. "And you can be indicted for it, and we want to make sure our traffic on the roadways stays safe."

Hartley said though it was a locked sign, the padlock for it was cut. Signs such as these have a computer inside that is password-protected.

"And so they had to break in and hack into the computer to do it, so they were pretty determined," said Hartley.

http://www.kxan.com/...warn_of_zombies

They say this is a serious crime, but I dunno, I would feel safer if my city tested its emergency zombie notification system more often.

See the article for more article, as well as pictures and a video.

This post has been edited by Ninja Duck: 17 February 2009 - 02:00 PM

[Spoon Poetic]

Wow, someone really needs to get a life... Funny though!

[Slade]

I have to agree with you, NinjaDuck. That sign is far more awesome than it is criminal. Unless it originally said "Bridge out" or something. The video is also awesome in the way that that make it into this huge exposee drama, with all of the silly panning and random negative image shots, etc. like this is the crime of the century, and the individuals involved are deranged, and we should all be amazed and ashamed and terrified of their hax0ring.

[J m HofMarN]

I wish I could do stuff that cool with my computer. I have to disagree though, it takes a lot of vision to drive by a traffic sign, realize it can be fucked with, and then fuck with it for the amusement of all. That sort of thing had never occured to me. The best I could have conjured would have been some anti Bush nonsense, whereas this brings joy to the lives of everyone except a few people in charge of traffic signage. My compliments, mystery haxxors!

This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 17 February 2009 - 10:13 PM

[Spoon Poetic]

I just wonder, didn't they have anything better to do?
But it is funny. Unless it could cause accidents. At least if they're going to spend time on something that will land them in jail, it might as well be something like this. Good choice of punishable crimes, haxxors?

This post has been edited by Spoon Poetic: 17 February 2009 - 11:35 PM

[barend]

I's only illegal and considered serious because stupid people will think it's real and start blowing away meth heads with their shotguns or stabbing goth chicks with pitchforks.