In the past couple of months, a number of Target stores have fallen victim to an embarrassing, yet hilarious pornographic prank. The hackers can access the store’s PA system and broadcast audio at large volume. In this particular case, the pranksters played a pornographic film on full blast for an entire 15 minutes. Naturally, most shoppers were completely outraged according to Gina Young:
“”People were up in arms,”
“Some people threw their things down and walked out. Others were yelling at employees.”
Apparently, an e-mail obtained by the BBC was sent out to bosses at the company which reads:
“Non-Target team members are attempting to access the intercom system by calling stores and requesting to be connected to line [xxxx],”
“If connected, callers have control of the intercom until they hang up.”
“We are actively working to limit intercom access to the Guest Services phone only. In the meantime, inform all operators to not connect any calls to line [xxxx].”
Target’s spokeswoman Molly Snyder wouldn’t deny or confirm the e-mail’s authenticity but told the BBC:
“We are actively reviewing the situation with the team to better understand what happened and are taking steps to help ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
“Because this is an active investigation, I’m unable to share additional details, but we want our guests to know that we take this very seriously.”
This entire situation emphasizes how vulnerable many PA systems are in leading retail chains. Although, the embarrassment might result in enhanced security in the long-term.
