The group behind the obscene video that lit up an LED screen in Kluang, Johor, says the breach was meant to show how easily public display networks can be taken over. Leakers, as the group calls itself, told The Cairo Report that it did not set out to single out billboards at all, New Straits Times reported.
The Kluang Municipal Council confirmed the compromise on 29 October and, according to SAYS, is working with the system vendor to find the cause, restore the system and tighten its security. The council apologised to residents and said it will take legal action against anyone who tries to bring down or tarnish its image.
Johor housing and local government committee chairperson Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said every screen was switched off as soon as the council was told. “For your information, the MPK LED system was hacked and MPK took immediate action by shutting down all LED screens,” he said.
Police have opened two investigation papers. District police chief Assistant Commissioner Bahrin Mohd Noh said a 42-year-old man lodged a report after receiving a WhatsApp message about the incident. Officers are investigating under Section 4(1) of the Computer Crimes Act and Section 292 of the Penal Code.
The group says Kluang was one stop in a wider sweep that also reached screens in Egypt, Iraq, Brazil and China. Its members exploited flaws in the software that pushes content to LED displays, some of which could be reached through the system’s own web pages and interfaces.
Targets were found by automated scanning rather than chosen in advance, according to the group’s account to the Cairo-based portal, and thousands of exposed systems turned up within two hours.
Digital billboard networks are commonly run on remote content management software, which lets an operator push images and video to screens at several sites from one console. A flaw in that layer exposes every screen on the network, not just the one showing the wrong picture.
In its first public statement, the group said the aim was not extortion or ransomware. “Companies charge millions of ringgit to build infrastructure across various countries, yet leave LED screens and billboard networks exposed on the internet without even basic protection,” it said.
It also pushed back on coverage that treated the attack as the work of a state-backed team. “We are not here to lecture anyone, ask for donations or act like a ransomware group, but to expose these vulnerabilities and prove that anyone can take control of screens across your country in real time.”
The count of thousands of exposed systems is the group’s own claim, and investigators have not said how the Kluang screens were reached. The council has said it is strengthening the system while the two police papers run.
