Hacking of Electronic Billboards Reported in Augusta, Georgia

An electronic billboard owned by Be Still Displays was hacked on the night of January 28, 2017 on the main thoroughfare of Washington Road in Augusta, Georgia. A similar hacking occurred in Atlanta in 2015. As of Monday, January 31, neither the display owner, Chris Withers, nor the Richmond Count Sheriff’s Office, could explain how the hacking occurred.

A local television station, WRDW, reported that one billboard “showed a piece of jewelry and said “Look at that nice-a** jewelry. F****** sweet, isn’t it?” One image had the Starbucks logo on it and made a sexual reference.

Withers said he had to pay $10,000 to fix the problem, with new computers and an upgraded system with protection that will cost $2000 annually. He has owned 16 electronic billboards since 2010, and has been in the outdoor-advertising business for 20 years. To read two articles about the incident, go to http://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Washington-Road-billboard-gets-hacked-shows-curse-words-to-describe-jewelry-412169543.html

PHOTO CREDIT
Amy Guth.

Wade Swormstedt

Wade is the former Executive Director of the Foundation for the Advancement of the Sign Industry and the former Editor and Publisher of Signs of the Times magazine.

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