Hacking traffic signs

By: Drivers.com staff
Date: Saturday, 20. June 2009

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With the proliferation of programmable traffic signs may come a new worry, says CNET blogger Daniel Terdiman. Referring to an article on the I-hacked.com web site, which appears to describe a method of hacking the signs, Tardiman reckons the signs are not well protected and that even not-very-determined hackers could easily get in there and change your local sign from "traffic flowing well" to "road blocked ahead" or worse.

The I-hack site maintains that access panels on signs are generally protected by a small lock but often left completely unprotected. Referring to the ADDCO portable signs an I-hacker blogger with the handle "atmosfear 1337" writes, "Upon opening the access panel you can see the display electronics … Programming is as simple as scrolling down the menu selection to 'Instant Text'. Type whatever you want to display, Hit Enter to submit. You can now either throw it up on the sign by selecting 'Run w/out save' or you can add more pages to it by selecting 'Add page' "

Terdiman doesn’t see an immediate threat to drivers but points out that the possibility is there. "If you're like me," he writes, "you've always just assumed that the message on the signs is legitimate and properly authorized". Without better security that trust may not always hold up.

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