Many LED signs across the country had their contents changed

Tien Tu, specializing in making LED signs in District 12 (HCMC), had to “cry for help” on a Facebook group of advertising professionals at the end of October, because his customers’ signs were constantly being tampered with. Content. He said this board is set up through a smartphone application. However, not long after installation, the LED panel was changed to another content that he could not control.

On November 22, the Department of Information Security – Ministry of Information and Communications said that from the end of October until now, this situation has been recorded across the country, in which electronic advertising boards with LED lights of many businesses have been reported. Individuals and organizations are infiltrated and display information is changed.

According to the Department’s representative, most of the tampered with signs are old products or of unclear origin. As long as the phone is connected to the same wifi as the LED panel, users can change information using some applications, such as Led Art on smartphones.

In recorded cases, the Department said sign managers mainly used default or easy-to-guess wifi passwords such as 88888888, 11111111, 12345678.

The fact that a series of LED panels had their contents edited also came from a trend on social networks. The Information Security Department believes that a series of videos on TikTok and Facebook have contributed to spreading this practice. “Young people see this as a trophy to brag about, leading to many people learning and following, causing this situation to appear in many places across the country,” said a representative of the Department.

To fix this, this unit recommends that individuals and organizations using LED billboards need to check and review the wifi password they are using, and change to another password that is more complex and difficult to guess. In case the LED panel can be set up using a cable connection, users are also recommended to turn off wifi to avoid unauthorized access.

Luu Quy