Hackers Gain Control of LED Billboard for Minutes to Post Racy Images

An engineering student takes part in a hacking challenge near Paris on March 16, 2013. (AFP via Getty Images/Thomas Samson)

Hackers gained control of a commercial LED billboard in Brisbane, Australia for a few minutes and displayed pornographic images on it.

The situation has highlighted how interconnected the infrastructure landscape can be amid a spate of major cyberattacks against Australian businesses that have put the personal data of millions of individuals at risk.

The attack occurred on the morning of Nov. 20 when hackers gained control of a large format digital LED billboard along busy Milton Road and ran pornographic content for a few seconds to three-and-a-half minutes, according to the billboard advertising company, goa.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 15: Getty Images Holdings is displayed on an electronic billboard in Times Square on August 15, 2022 in New York City. Getty Images made a return to the public market on the New York Stock Exchange. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

“Within minutes of the breach occurring, our IT techs began an immediate shutdown and investigation,” the company said in a statement obtained by the Brisbane Times newspaper. “No other screen in our network was affected in any way, all continue to operate as scheduled.”

Goa is one of the largest billboard companies in the state of Queensland.

Increased Connectivity Comes With Risks

Digital billboards have become a more widespread part of the Australian cityscape with companies keen to switch over because of their ease of use and cost-savings.

Traditional billboards can only be changed on monthly cycles and require teams, cranes, and new advertising printed each month.

With digital billboards, new artwork can be uploaded almost instantaneously (at very little cost) and at any time. Yet this convenience comes with increased connectivity and the risk of hacks.

A commuter walks past a digital billboard displaying an ad for the so-called "9-euro-ticket" in the Alexanderplatz U-bahn subway station in Berlin on May 31, 2022. (Photo by John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images)

The goa breach comes as Australian organisations and the federal government move to combat ongoing cyberattacks that have targeted some of the country’s largest businesses.

These include Medibank, the largest private health insurer, Optus, the second largest telecommunications provider, EnergyAustralia, one of the “Big Three” energy providers, and Woolworths, Australia’s largest supermarket chain.

The Department of Defence also revealed it had been hit by a cyberattack as well.

In response, the Australian Federal Police revealed that the Medibank hack was perpetrated by a Russian-linked group. The group has continued to dump several tranches of private data onto the dark web in response to the company’s refusal to pay a US$10 million ransom.

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Meanwhile, Rachel Noble, head of the Australian Signals Directorate said the country was also an attractive target for ransomware because of its wealth and high levels of online connectivity.

“Cybercrime continued to be a pervasive and endemic threat to Australia’s economic and social prosperity,” she stated in her organisation’s annual report.

“Ransomware is one of the most significant cybercrime threats Australian organisations faced, with modern ransomware attacks increasingly sequenced and orchestrated.”