Billboards in Multiple Countries Hacked to Show Porn

Sexually explicit footage appeared on digital LED billboards in Egypt, Malaysia, Brazil, and reportedly Iraq and China on Thursday. Following these incidents, a group on Telegram claimed responsibility for an operation it described as simple enough that “anyone with two brain cells” could have pulled it off. The most prominent confirmed incident unfolded on a large electronic billboard overlooking the 26th of July Axis in Giza, one of Egypt’s busiest highways connecting Cairo to its western suburbs. Drivers stopped their cars to film as the screen broadcast pornographic video overlaid with the text “Leaked by: Ch, 19ylegal never and nivex” and the Telegram handle @LeakersGov, according to CNN. A massive digital billboard on one of Cairo’s busiest highways was hacked to display pornographic footage, shocking drivers and prompting motorists to stop and record the scene. According to CNN, the incident took place on Egypt’s 26th of July Axis, with the hackers displaying… pic.twitter.com/YFGp8H8rJB — ILTV Israel News (@ILTVNews) November 1, 2026 Egypt’s Interior Ministry said the screen belonged to local advertising firm Al Arabia United, which had contracted with an unnamed international company whose website was subjected to a cyberattack that caused the unauthorized footage to also be broadcast “in several other countries, simultaneously.” The ministry said legal proceedings had been initiated and that the international company suspended broadcasts. Al Arabia United stated it detected unauthorized access by an unknown party to one screen, shut it down as a precaution, and was investigating the incident with authorities. The Cairo Report identified Al Arabia United as an Egyptian-Saudi joint venture established in 2022 by United Media Services (the media arm of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, which controls more than 40 companies) and Saudi-listed Arabian Contracting Services Co. The venture operates roughly 1,926 billboards, including 239 digital ones, in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and the North Coast. In Malaysia, the Kluang Municipal Council confirmed that several of its public LED screens in Kluang, Johor, were hacked to show obscene content. In response, the council shut down all affected screens. According to English-language Malaysian media outlet The Star, police opened investigations after a report from a 42-year-old man who received screenshots and videos via WhatsApp. In Campo Maior, Piauí, Brazil, an LED panel on an avenue near the BR-343 displayed pornographic content. A circulating video showed a naked man seated nearby, with one bystander exclaiming (translated from Portuguese), “What kind of mess is this? Live. And there’s still another good-looking naked guy here. Man, this business is really all screwed up.” Company Ferreira & Ferreira Publicidade e Comunicação confirmed a cyberattack, shut down the equipment immediately, filed a police report, and apologized to the public, Brazilian media outlet G1 reported. The group behind the cyberattack also claimed access in Iraq and China, but independent confirmation for those locations is thinner than for the aforementioned locations. How the Hack Was Carried Out The group behind the Telegram channel Leakers$ told The Cairo Report it exploited a vulnerability in software used to transmit content to LED displays rather than targeting individual physical billboards. A representative said participants using the pseudonyms Never, 19ylegal, CH, and Nivex identified thousands of exposed systems through an automated random scan lasting roughly two hours. The systems were allegedly accessible via web pages and interfaces that lacked basic security protections. “It was a genuine vulnerability in the software responsible for transmitting content to LED displays,” the person said. “After exploiting it, we gained access to display systems in several countries, not just Egypt, but also Malaysia, Brazil, China, and others.” The group added that “it wasn’t nearly as complex an operation as many might imagine” and that “companies charge millions to build infrastructure across countries, yet leave LED screens and advertising networks connected to the internet without even basic protection.” On Friday, the Leakers$ Telegram channel posted, “Egypt remains under a dictatorship. The government maintains its power through repression, while the country struggles to move forward. Years pass, but nothing changes and people’s lives don’t improve.” The channel has stated it is not seeking donations, ransoms, or acting as a ransomware group, but is exposing vulnerabilities to prove that “anyone can take control of screens across your country in real time.” Mainstream media, the group said, overhypes such operations as sophisticated or state-sponsored when the infrastructure is simply poorly secured. Not the First Time This Has Happened Past digital billboard hacks have included a 2022 incident in Brisbane, Australia, where a screen displayed pornography for several minutes before being shut down and a 2016 case in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a man was arrested after broadcasting Japanese porn on a hacked billboard as a prank. In August 2023, Iraqi authorities shut down electronic advertising screens across Baghdad after a hacker broadcast pornographic footage on a screen in Uqba bin Nafeh Square; a technician was later arrested and said he acted because of a financial dispute with the company that operated the screens. In another case from 2019, security researcher Drew Green gained access to an internet-connected digital signage system after finding an unchanged default administrator password on its web interface, then chained additional flaws that would have allowed arbitrary content to be displayed. Similar problems with default password usage have shown up repeatedly in digital billboard security incidents, to the point where the Out of Home Advertising Association of America warned in their 2024 Digital Billboard Security Guidelines, “Do not rely on default passwords from display manufacturers.”