Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, confirmed that a portable traffic sign at Lamar Boulevard and West 15th Street, near the University of Texas at Austin, was hacked into during the early hours of Jan. 19."It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for," said Lippincott, who saw the sign during his morning commute. . . . "It's sort of amusing, but not at all helpful," he told FOXNews.com.
Oh, yeah, right. If there's a bunch of shambling undead creatures with an appetite for braaaaains! blocking the highway ahead, I'd like to be told before I drive into them and meet a painful, messy, PG-13-rated death. I mean, if there's a horde of zombies running about eating people's brains in your community, shouldn't you at least be blocking the road and setting up a detour or something? Some "public safety official" you are!
According to the blog i-hacked.com, some commercial road signs, including those manufactured by IMAGO's ADDCO division, can be easily altered because their instrument panels are frequently left unlocked and their default passwords are not changed. . . . ADDCO Chief Operating Officer Brian Nicholson told FOXNews.com that the company is sending out notices to customers on the potentially dangerous security flaw. "It's incumbent upon users to change the default password and secure the sign with a padlock," Nicholson said. "We're having our engineers review this information."
In the meantime, if you're driving in Austin, you can rest assured: There are no zombies ahead.
There are hippies, though. You've been warned.