Drivers travelling along a Tasmanian highway during the morning commute were shocked to see a roadside display sign showing a rude message.
The electronic board was spotted on the Bass Highway in the island state’s north-west, between Rocky Cape and Detention River, on Wednesday around 7.30 am.
‘Your mums a h**,’ the sign read.
A spokesperson for the state government’s Building Tasmania department, which delivers roads, housing and infrastructure, addressed the vandalism.
‘A contractor’s sign was vandalised overnight and reset to its intended message at 7.30am,’ they said.
‘Any damage to the sign will be reported to Tasmania Police by the contractor.’
Richard Pascoe, a tech consultant from Adelaide, said hacking an electronic roadside sign is not the sophisticated wireless cyber attack people might imagine.
‘Someone could get inside the physical box because the lock is weak, damaged or left unlocked by a staff member,’ he told the Daily Mail.
An electronic traffic sign between Rocky Cape and Detention River on the Bass Highway in Tasmania was changed to have a rude message
Richard Pascoe said a physical break-in, default passwords or an unsecured Wi-Fi connection could be some of the methods a hacker might use to change the sign
‘That would allow them access to change the message directly.’
Mr Pascoe said other methods to change the message can include gaining access through passwords or wirelessly.
‘Some signs and controllers are shipped with factory-set credentials,’ he said.
‘If operators have not changed them, gaining access can be much easier than it should be.
‘Newer signs may also offer Bluetooth or local Wi-Fi, allowing authorised workers to configure them nearby.’
However, a wireless attack would still require a hacker to identify a weakness such as poor authentication, an unsecured connection, outdated equipment or unchanged default credentials.
‘It’s not as simple as pointing a gadget at a secure sign and magically taking control,’ Mr Pascoe said.
He added that incidents involving tampered traffic signs appear to have become more common since the concept was famously portrayed in the 1991 film LA Story.
Mr Pascoe said incidents involving tampered traffic signs appear to have become more common since the concept was famously portrayed in the 1991 film LA Story (pictured)
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During the comedy, a magical freeway traffic sign communicates with the main character, Harris Telemacher (played by Steve Martin), giving personal and romantic advice.
Australians on social media found the Tasmanian prank amusing, with some branding the altered text ‘hilarious’ and ‘gold’.
‘Oh come on, it’s funny,’ one commenter said, while another added: ‘Someone teach me how to do this.’
But others claimed the sign could have been ruder, and took aim at the author’s grammar.
‘Pfft! That’s lame! I’ve seen heaps better than that. Personally, I find more vulgarity in the bad grammar,’ they said.
