The RDV Group InfoSec Blog

Monday, May 08, 2006

"Stephen Harper Eats Babies" ...

... is what the scrolling reader board in the suburban Toronto commuter train said. Normally it reports on train schedules or public events, but this time it was referring to the recently elected prime minister of Canada. The problem was that this was not an authorized message, and the New York Times reports today that the Greater Toronto Transit Authority had received five other sightings of the bizarre notice.

Evidently the seven-year old transit reader signs had been hacked by an infrared hand-held, and the software was never configured to require a password. And it's not clear that the software has the capability to use passwords. The GTTA has since turned off the signs, and is installing password software.

And friends of Mr. Harper say he's never eaten a single baby that they know of.