Hacked Atlanta Billboard Displayed Grotesque Porn Image

A security researcher claims he got the cold shoulder when he previously warned the firm that operates the sign that its products are vulnerable due to insecure credentials.

“Atlanta's affluent Buckhead neighborhood is a great place to shop, eat, and, last weekend, it was a great place to spot a man bent over stretching his asshole far beyond what could possibly be healthy,” Motherboard reports.

Hackers took over the billboard there and replaced it with an infamous image from “Goatse,” an Internet shock site.

Before the incident, Dan Tentler, a researcher at security firm Carbon Dynamics, had been in contact with the billboard company to offer help with a security hole he found and was told, “Not interested, but thank you.” That was a day before the hack.

In April, Tentler had written the firm an email, stating, "I wanted to let you guys know that your customers are deploying these signs and not changing the default passwords, which, if an actual bad guy found this out, could lead to some unwanted tinkering with the signs, possibly some defacement.”

Tentler would not disclose the name of the company.

Tentler is not a suspect in the case, which is currently under investigation by the FBI. Local media reported that a group called the "Assange Shuffle Collective" took responsibility for the hack in a now-deleted post on Reddit.