Hacking programmable road signs

This road sign has been hacked to read 'Zombies Ahead.' According to i-hacked.com, it is fairly easy to break into the programmable digital signs' electronics and re-program the text on them.

(Credit: i-hacked.com)

We see them everywhere these days, digital signs by the side of the road telling us about road conditions or that we should prepare to stop or that our local bridge might be closed next Tuesday from noon to midnight. And if you're like me, you've always just assumed that the message on the signs is legitimate and properly authorized.

But what if the sign, instead of reading something like "Ice Ahead" was flashing the message, "Zombies Ahead"?

It's true that in San Francisco or a few other cities, such a sign could be put up by local transportation officials to warn people of an impending zombie march, but even in those places, the more likely explanation would be that the sign was hacked.

And if you're in the Boston area and saw signs hacked in this way, there's always a decent chance it was done by students from MIT.

According to the blog i-hacked.com, some programmable road signs are easily messed with, largely because they often have unlocked instrument panels, a text-entry system that is easily accessed, and are often protected with uncomplicated, or unchanged default passwords.

This is the internal display system of an Addco sign, according to i-hacked.com.

(Credit: i-hacked.com)

"Programming is as simple as scrolling down the menu selection to 'Instant Text,'" i-hacked reported. "Type whatever you want to display, (and) hit 'enter' to submit. You can now either throw it up on the sign by selecting 'Run w/out save' or you can add more pages to it by selecting 'Add page.'"

Of course, you probably don't want to do this in plain view of any law enforcement officials, and i-hacked led its post with a disclaimer warning against ever performing this hack. So here at Geek Gestalt, we'll just say that it's interesting that this could be such an easy thing to do and leave it at that.

The History of Hacking

The top 10 hacks of all time

Even as the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) is collaborating with Mumbai Police to observe Cyber Safety Week, DNA takes a look at the top 10 hacking incidents of all time -- instances where some of the most seemingly secure computer networks were compromised Early

1990s

Kevin Mitnick, often incorrectly called by many as god of hackers, broke into the computer systems of the world's top technology and telecommunications companies Nokia, Fujitsu, Motorola, and Sun Microsystems. He was arrested by the FBI in 1995, but later released on parole in 2000. He never termed his activity hacking, instead he called it social engineering.

November 2002
Englishman Gary McKinnon was arrested in November 2002 following an accusation that he hacked into more than 90 US military computer systems in the UK. He is currently undergoing trial in a British court for a "fast-track extradition" to the US where he is a wanted man. The next hearing in the case is slated for today.

1995
Russian computer geek Vladimir Levin effected what can easily be called The Italian Job online - he was the first person to hack into a bank to extract money. Early 1995, he hacked into Citibank and robbed $10 million. Interpol arrested him in the UK in 1995, after he had transferred money to his accounts in the US, Finland, Holland, Germany and Israel.

1990
When a Los Angeles area radio station announced a contest that awarded a Porsche 944S2 for the 102nd caller, Kevin Poulsen took control of the entire city's telephone network, ensured he is the 102nd caller, and took away the Porsche beauty. He was arrested later that year and sentenced to three years in prison. He is currently a senior editor at Wired News.

1983
Kevin Poulsen again. A little-known incident when Poulsen, then just a student, hacked into Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet was hacked into. Arpanet was a global network of computers, and Poulsen took advantage of a loophole in its architecture to gain temporary control of the US-wide network.

1996
US hacker Timothy Lloyd planted six lines of malicious software code in the computer network of Omega Engineering which was a prime supplier of components for NASA and the US Navy. The code allowed a "logic bomb" to explode that deleted software running Omega's manufacturing operations. Omega lost $10 million due to the attack.

1988
Twenty-three-year-old Cornell University graduate Robert Morris unleashed the first Internet worm on to the world. Morris released 99 lines of code to the internet as an experiment, but realised that his program infected machines as it went along. Computers crashed across the US and elsewhere. He was arrested and sentenced in 1990.

1999
The Melissa virus was the first of its kind to wreak damage on a global scale. Written by David Smith (then 30), Melissa spread to more than 300 companies across the world completely destroying their computer networks. Damages reported amounted to nearly $400 million. Smith was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.

2000
MafiaBoy, whose real identity has been kept under wraps because he is a minor, hacked into some of the largest sites in the world, including eBay, Amazon and Yahoo between February 6 and Valentine's Day in 2000. He gained access to 75 computers in 52 networks, and ordered a Denial of Service attack on them. He was arrested in 2000.

1993
They called themselves Masters of Deception, targeting US phone systems. The group hacked into the National Security Agency, AT&T, and Bank of America. It created a system that let them bypass long-distance phone call systems, and gain access to private lines.

Source & Credits: DNA India