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.