A roadside digital billboard on one of Brisbane’s busiest roads was hacked to show pornographic content for three minutes on the weekend. It’s believed the billboard structure may have broken into by the hackers on Sunday morning.
(photo: Reddit)
Brisbane-based outdoor advertising company goa, a member of the Outdoor Media Association (OMA), described the incident as “abhorrent” and removed the content within minutes of being notified.
“At 9.23am on Sunday morning, a single digital LED screen began to show inappropriate content of a pornographic nature,” goa said in a statement.
“The transmission of this material ran for between a number of seconds and up to 3½ minutes. Within minutes of the breach occurring, our IT techs began an immediate shutdown and investigation. No other screen in our network was affected in any way, all continue to operate as scheduled.”
Goa MD Chris Tyquin said the company had not received any threats before the incident.
“We retain video recordings which includes imagery of individuals that may assist police in their investigations. Apart from this one-off incident, the rest of our internal transmission systems, including security systems, were not breached in any way.”
Goa added: “We regret the offence or distress that this may have caused to members of the public who evidenced this transmission. We are particularly conscious that this may have included children and adolescents. As a family-owned business that has operated in Brisbane for in excess of 50 years, no manner or format of pornography is acceptable.
“This attack on one of our LED screens was irresponsible, deliberate and malicious. We hope that Queensland Police can help bring the perpetrators to justice.
“A crisis meeting involving senior management and relevant staff began immediately as we became aware of this breach and is focused on the security across our entire network. Further security measures began to be implemented last night. All other screens have been reconfirmed to be physically intact. Further, all monitoring equipment of each site are working to expectations.”
