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The BBC reports that several Target stores in the US have had their public address systems hacked, resulting in explicit pornographic audio being broadcast across the stores, in some cases for more than 15 minutes at a time.
An email obtained by the BBC, sent by company bosses to Target store managers across the US on Friday afternoon, outlines a weakness in the store's PA system being used to carry out the prank.I've removed a key detail for obvious reasons.
"Non-Target team members are attempting to access the intercom system by calling stores and requesting to be connected to line [xxxx]," it reads. "If connected, callers have control of the intercom until they hang up. We are actively working to limit intercom access to the Guest Services phone only. In the meantime, inform all operators to not connect any calls to line [xxxx]."
So in other words, if you ring up Target and ask to be put through to a certain extension, you're suddenly live on the PA system for as long as you like. Hardly the hack of the century, granted, but a reminder that there are people out there that will find even the most obscure vulnerabilities and exploit them.
I don't condone breaching computer systems but I guess that's one way to draw attention to vulnerabilities. Too bad they didn't pick something more kid-friendly. Like broadcasting that for the next 60 minutes there would be an 80% discount on everything in the store.
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Monday October 19 2015, @03:30PM
A friend and I did something like this at Walmart when we were kids. We were just too shocked that it worked and afraid of being caught to do anything "cool" with it. We called say electronics and asked if Joe (made up name) as working and was told a Joe wasn't working or otherwise didn't work there, but we did this engage the employee and get their name (Bob, for example). So we would hang up, call back and talk to the operator and say "Hey, it's bob in toys, I can't use the intercom, could you transfer me?" It worked.