Nation-wide radio station hack airs hours of vulgar “furry sex” ramblings

[davidm]

This is obviously wrong, but it is funny. People need to learn to use stronger passwords!

Nation-wide radio station hack airs hours of vulgar “furry sex” ramblings

KIFT wasn’t the only station to be hit by the hack. On the same day, Livingston, Texas-based country music station KXAX also broadcast raunchy furry-themed audio. And according to an article posted Wednesday by radio industry news site RadioInsight.com, the unauthorized broadcasts from a hobbyist group called FurCast were also forced on an unnamed station in Denver and an unidentified national syndicator.
…
Mclelland said the hack was carried out by someone who managed to take control of an audio streaming device sold by a company called Barix. The account is consistent with the RadioInsight post, which said the string of unauthorized broadcasts was accomplished when attackers attempted to log in to large numbers of Barix boxes. When successful, the attackers locked out the rightful operators and caused the equipment to play Internet-accessible podcasts made available by FurCast, a hobbyist group dedicated to furry sex.
…
“This appears to have been in the planning stages for some time by the person doing it,” an advisory published by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters said of the Barix system hack. “Apparently they have been accumulating passwords for some time. MAKE SURE that your password is of sufficient strength! Barix Boxes will take up to 24 characters…. In at least two cases six character passwords were cracked.”

Members of the group responsible for the FurCast have also supported the explanation. In a post published Wednesday and updated Thursday, they report that starting on Tuesday morning, their streaming server was hit by “large numbers of IP addresses attempting to connect to our archive stream.” Most of the connection requests identified themselves as being made by a “Barix Streaming Client.” Most or all of the Barix boxes attempting to connect were listed on the search website Shodan, an indication that they were easy for hackers to find and then probe for weaknesses. FurCast members were able to thwart the attack by changing the Web addresses of podcasts the compromised streaming equipment attempted to play.

[Little_Nemo]

I didn’t read the full article so my take-away on this is that Shodan is somehow involved in a criminal furry gang.

[davidm]

Yeah, I noticed the mention of Shodan. I was wondering if anyone else would catch that.