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After Repeated Hacks, City Gives Up on Electronic Traffic Sign

It started earlier this week. An electronic road sign at Brownsboro Road and Hite Avenue was hacked to display two unauthorized messages: "Beware of Zombies" and "Honk if You're Horny."These pranks have become fairly common ( here's one of several pages that collects hacked sign images), and instructions for changing the messages on road signs can be easily found online. 

 

The Courier-Journal reports that a lock was put on the sign yesterday, but the hackers persist. They went onomatopoetic today, making the sign display the word "RAWR." As a result, the city will remove the sign.

 

From the C-J:

 

“This is getting beyond a prank,” [spokeswoman Lindsay] English said. “It is becoming a public safety concern because the message is there to direct traffic and alert motorists to traffic pattern changes. We certainly do not want some other message being posted that is not a joke and could cause an accident.”