Hackers Crack Into Texas Road Sign, Warn of Zombies Ahead

Transportation officials in Texas are scrambling to prevent hackers from changing messages on digital road signs after one sign in Austin was altered to read, “Zombies Ahead.”

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. “Those signs are deployed for a reason — to improve traffic conditions, let folks know there’s a road closure.”

Not exactly hacking, but whatever. Ten to one the control box on that thing was open and if there was even a password on it (unlikely) it was the default. Which is retardedly easy to get. Also, the relative location to UT Austin leans this more towards tech-savvy drunks than hackers.(Granted, some might argue that there is little difference between the two. I am not going to play semantics tonight, friend!)

Considering my general outlook on this situation, I might have been tempted to call into work and tell them I wasn’t coming in due to the zombie apocalypse and return home to arm myself. The next drunken cripple that groaned past me would lose his cerebellum. Things would quickly escalate and go down hill from that point, but it might be kinda fun.

Personally, I would have changed it to say something to do with the CDC and a possible quarantine. Man, that might actually inspire some fear.

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1. okay, I get it already
2. pretty much sums it up, I think…
3. You can’t make stuff like this up?
4. it’s pretty wild out there
5. yeah, well, you must admit it is pretty quirky.