$10K reward offered for info on hacked construction sign showing racist message

Construction sign in Montgomery Co. hacked with racist message

As hate crimes are on the rise in Montgomery County, police are still investigating an incident from over the weekend involving a hacked construction sign. FOX 5's Katie Barlow reports from Bethesda with the details.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. - An electronic sign board in a construction zone near Brookeville Road and George Avenue, was hacked, and a racist message was displayed Saturday morning around 6:47 a.m. in Montgomery County.

The Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center received multiple calls about the board displaying a racist message. Patrol officers arrived on the scene and discovered the sign board intended for construction safety messages had been hacked into.

Officers erased the message and the sign was removed.

Montgomery County police are offering a reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.

Cybersecurity expert Will Caput spoke with FOX 5 and says these electronic signs are now entirely wireless. But that leaves them susceptible, with hackers sometimes able to guess a default password to access the sign from anywhere.

"I've seen it in my neighborhood where someone had hacked into and said ‘zombies are coming,’ or something like that but never anything like this. This is all very different," said MCPD Captain Jordan Satinsky.

But the bigger risk could be something more nefarious.

"When I looked at it back in the day it was around the time of 9/11, you know, terrorism. What could a foreign entity do to the sign that might cause panic in a town? What you're seeing now is just the next iteration of that. Basically, the signs aren't secure," said Caput.

Police have not been able to determine if the hack took place physically in person with the sign or remotely. Oftentimes they are reliant on the companies who own or operate the signs to manage security and provide updates.

"From the police department side, we aren't really computer-focused for the most part, so we would hope the folks at the county or the state would take care of that. But you've got to remember some of these things were built many, many years ago and updating them is very expensive," said Satinsky.

MCPD asks anyone with information to call 1-866-411-TIPS.