By Staff Writer.
Brisbane-based billboard advertising company Goa was the target of a cyberattack on the weekend when hackers accessed a large digital billboard on Milton Road and set it to display “inappropriate content of a pornographic nature.”
The incident occurred at 09:23 am on Sunday, November 20. Goa confirms the content was viewable to passing traffic for three and a half minutes before they could shut it down. A report by News.com says Pornhub’s home page was the displayed content. Pornhub is the world’s most popular pornography site, and its home page contains a series of explicit static images.
Goa says they have provided Queensland Police with CCTV footage of individuals at the site whom they believe could assist with enquiries.
“Within minutes of the breach occurring, our IT techs began an immediate shutdown and investigation,” said Goa in a statement. “Apart from this one-off incident, the rest of our internal transmission systems, including security systems, were not breached in any way.”
Goa states that it operates billboards in “premium locations” around Southeast Queensland. The targeted billboard is located at 315 Milton Road, Milton, close to Suncorp Stadium and directly faces outbound traffic. According to Goa’s website, the digital screen measures 6.40m x 7.36m. Tens of thousands of cars a day use Milton Road.
Queensland Police confirmed that they received a complaint from Goa concerning a “secure advertising site” that was broken into. Managing Director Chris Tyquin said Goa had not received any warning of the attack or threats but was adding further security measures because of Sunday’s incident.
“All other screens have been reconfirmed to be physically intact. Further, all monitoring equipment of each site are working to expectations,” he said. “This attack on one of our LED screens was irresponsible, deliberate and malicious.”
While relatively unusual in Australia, cyberattacks on billboards and digital displays, frequently involving a pornographic element, are regular events elsewhere. In North America, roadside digital billboards have been the subject of breaches since the introduction of digital advertising technology. However, pranksters rather than malicious actors have generally been behind the incidents.
In September, a digital touchscreen kiosk outside the student centre at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City was compromised and for two days allowed viewers to open several pornography sites, including Pornhub, before the university’s IT department shut it down. Like the Brisbane incident, investigating police focused on CCTV of individuals tampering with the equipment onsite rather than remotely.
Underscoring the vulnerability of roadside digital billboards is the relatively simple technology behind the displays and the often unsophisticated physical and online security surrounding the operating equipment. It can leave the billboard exposed to people armed with a crowbar to break in and enough IT savvy to change the onscreen display.
Tyquin says Goa is taking Sunday’s attack extremely seriously. He notes that the billboard is close to a local primary school and that it was fortunate that the incident occurred on a Sunday morning rather than a weekday morning. The CEO went on to say that he hoped Queensland Police would make some arrests.
