There’s a 2013 Defcon talk called Hijacking the Outdoor Digital Billboard.  You tube “hacking billboards” you’ll see lots of hijacked digital billboards.   There are creative, intelligent, sketchy people with way too much time on their hands who would love to hack your digital billboards.  Here are some billboard vulnerabilities identified in the Defcon talk.

• No locks on a computer interface box at the base of your billboard or a Commercial Masterlock protecting the console at the base of the billboard.  You should have heard the audience laugh when this was mentioned.  Masterlocks can be picked.

• No fences around a digital billboard.

• Security cameras which point up at your sign but not down at the base of the sign.

• Billboard sales people who are glad to answer questions about uploading information and security procedures when a caller says “I’m a college student majoring in marketing” or when a caller says “I’m interested in buying space on your sign.”

• Software network vulnerabilities which allow packet sniffing and war dialing because the network isn’t encrypted.

• Using global user names and passwords or default names and passwords to login.

The defcon hacker suggested that the best time to hack boards is a half hour after the barroom last call to ensure that drunks are well on their way home and cops are busy with them.  Also don’t hack during holidays or weekends.

Insider will run articles in the coming weeks about billboard security.

Paid Advertisement