Sunday Funnies: French Parking Meters Insult Mayor

I usually go off-topic on Sunday, but every now and again something funny happens in the world of cybersecurity.  According to Sophos, some clever wag, possibly a disgruntled former employee of the parking meter company, possibly an outside hacker with a political ax to grind, was able to breach the computer system that controlled the parking meters in Meaux, a small town outside of Paris, and place a message insulting the town’s mayor at the bottom of the receipt.

This attack was leveled at the town’s mayor, Jean-François Copé.  Parking receipts issued to drivers from one particular parking lot replaced the usually “friendly” message with one declaring that Copé was a “bastard mayor” and a “thieving mayor”.

Below is a picture of one ticket that was posted to Twitter.  This is the kind of civil disobedience that shows some creativity.  Vive la France!

FrenchParkingTicket

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About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

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