Websites being the target of hackers is not a new phenomenon; we read about it every day. What one will not read about every day is hackers targeting digital screens on bus terminals and certainly not targeting them with the aim of replacing advertising images with pornography.
On Friday 7th Aug, an unknown hacker or group of hackers hacked into the computer system of Boqueirao bus terminal in Curitiba. They replaced the bus schedule and advertising on the screen with the pornographic material. Curitiba is the largest city of the Brazilian state of Paraná.
The hackers were successfully able to play pornographic content for about 15 minutes, but the question still remain unanswered; who carried out the hack and what was their motive? This is something yet to be figured out by the authorities.
Below is an image circulating on Facebook in Brazil; it shows an X-rated website open on the schedule and advertisement screen.
Image Source: Facebook
In a statement, the transport authority Urbs said it has notified the company responsible for the security of these screens from cyber attacks.
A similar incident took place in China earlier this week when customers inside a shopping center in Lishui city were shocked when one of the operators responsible for the mall’s advertisement screen mistakenly started streaming a porn video.
One of the scenes that ended up in Chinese social media – Playback / Weibo
The ‘mistake’ lasted nine minutes until it “went off the air.” Witnesses to the ‘mistake’ recorded the incident with their cell phones and shared it on social networks. Police are investigating the incident, the official Xinhua news agency reports.
Although both incidents took place thousands of miles apart from each other on opposite sides of the world, it is unclear if these incidents were just unfortunate coincidental ‘mistakes’ by an operator or something more sinister.
In the past twelve months, municipal guards in the City of Araraquara, some 273km away from Sao Paulo in Brazil, were suspended from their surveillance jobs after complaints were made accusing the surveillance team of ‘spying’ on women in low-cut dresses and couples out on dates.
