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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 Hyperturtle on Monday October 19 2015, @04:41PM
I agree with you, it's not a computer security hack, but I disagree in that I still think social engineering is a hack. Convincing someone to do something can be a lot harder than running a script... but then again, I hear that some people can be replaced by scripts, so its a wash.
You bring up an excellent point of the poor security; though, and these have been issues for years and really have become worse. The people in charge of those systems are not looking at it from a security perspective and only vaguely have, if only to prevent pranks like this...
I think they should have played old blue-light special in aisle 20 sorts of announcements, but I think everyone recognizes porn as a sort of universal cultural disruptive technology.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19 2015, @05:11PM
These are not the droids you're looking for.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Monday October 19 2015, @07:53PM
I have to wonder when all of those laid off IT people start running NMAP.