Zombies: The Next Great Threat to Network Security

If you haven’t seen the pictures yet, you’re missing out. Unless you work for the Department of Transportation, they’re really quite humorous. Hackers have taken it upon themselves to warn motorists of zombie attacks.

Several hacker sites listed instructions on how to change the text in common construction signs around the country. One of the first cities affected was Austin, Texas. Signs touted “Zombies ahead!” or “Zombies in Area! Run.”

This has spawned a rash of sign tampering across the United States. In Indiana, “Raptors Ahead” appeared on one sign warning motorists about the dangers of a possible encounter with the calculating pre-historic killing machine.zombiesign

According to one of the hacker sites, the ADDCO machines are easily editable. The default passwords are rarely changed by crews. If they are, you can reset them to defaults with a simple key combination.

After I stopped laughing, this made me think of the importance of physical security and implementing security best practices. If you have default passwords left on any of your network gear, you could be vulnerable to zombie attacks as well.

If all you have is a padlock protecting your servers, how much would it really take for someone to break in and change your marquee?

2 thoughts on “Zombies: The Next Great Threat to Network Security

  1. You make a great point Scott. I would have NEVER imagined that someone would even care to hack in to a road sign (of all things) and create some sort of a disturbance. However, an organization’s server is something I can easily see an amateur hacker taking a crack at. In fact, I have seen done more than once. The problem is that some businesses leave their data wide open to threats of this type simply because they don’t stop and consider how vulnerable they truly are – just like the once sacred road sign. Great job making the connection.

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