Vandals Are Using A Simple Hack To Change Messages On Digital Road Signs

By John Vibes / Truth Theory

You may have seen images being shared online showing digital road signs hacked with strange or controversial messages. This has been happening a lot, seemingly because the signs aren’t all that difficult to hack. Of course, you should never tamper with one of these signs, that might get you into trouble, but for informational purposes, it is interesting to know how these things work.

There is a control panel on the signs that is usually protected by a lockbox, but it is often left unlocked, allowing anyone to gain access to the keyboard. Inside the control panel, they will see a screen, which displays a menu. Next, they scroll down the menu to the “Instant Text” selection. At that point, they can type whatever they want into the display and it will appear on the sign. Sometimes there is a password, but most of them all have the same default password of “DOTS.”

In some cases, the crew may have changed the password but it is actually extremely easy to reset. If someone wants to reset the password, all they need to do is hold “Control” and “Shift” and while holding, enter “DIPY”. This will reset the sign and reset the password to “DOTS.”

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In some recent cases, people have been hacking road signs with messages telling people to vote for their favorite candidate, but other people are having a bit more fun. Below are a few of the most interesting examples that we have seen from around the web.