Users of Yuri Gagarin International Airport, in the Russian city of Saratov, were surprised by an uncommon screening. Data protection experts reported that a hacker group would have infiltrated the airport systems to display a pornographic film on the screens of one of the airport men’s bathrooms. The explicit material was projected on a set of screens for advertising.
The incident was even witnessed by Mikhail
Koklyaev, a renowned Russian athlete, who was amused by the incident in an
interview with local media. “Someone could tell us what’s wrong with that
screen?” the athlete jokingly said.
Gagarin Airport data protection team mentioned
that these screens are operated by a third-party company, so they are not
connected to the airport’s computer systems. “Those responsible for this
incident may have only acted for fun,” an airport representative said. The
airport administration decided to remove the bathroom screens until the company
providing this service ensures the integrity of its systems.
Apparently, hackers connected via WiFi to the screens to take control of them and start broadcasting the pornographic content, which consisted of scenes from the adult film “Big Secretary”.
A subsequent investigation revealed that at
least 11 people were in the bathroom where this happened at the time of the
incident. Eight of these people claimed to know nothing about the alleged
hacking. The remaining three people were unable to verify that they were at the
airport as passengers, so authorities have found them suspected of the
incident.
Recently there have been reports where an unknown threat actor compromises the systems that control these screens to display altered content, usually pornography. A few days ago, data protection experts from the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) reported that a hacker group altered the transmission of screens from a popular sports store in New Zealand.
A similar incident occurred in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where an electronic billboard began showing content related to the popular adult site PornHub. Although in most cases the authorities claim that these are human errors, experts claim that these are demonstrations of the capabilities of some hackers.
