'Send nudes': Highway sign in Kentucky hacked, and that's the naked truth

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A road sign with an unexpected message surprised Kentucky drivers on Thursday morning: "Send nudes."

Before you get a ticket for distracted driving, just know the message along Kentucky Highway 92 in Whitley County was not sent by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet – it was from a hacker.

The sign was turned off quickly after reports started flowing in at the Transportation Cabinet around 8 a.m.

State officials said they aren't sure who did the hacking.

The sign belongs to the contractor managing a roadwork project in Whitley, said Amber Hale, a cabinet spokeswoman.

"We were notified this morning that the message was ... different," Hale said. "We contacted (the contractor) and sent them immediately down to confirm it, they confirmed it, and they immediately turned the message board off."

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Hale said she wasn't sure exactly how the password-protected sign got hacked, but whoever did it would have had to be on site to reprogram it.

Technology media site StateScoop reported in 2018 that it's "still really easy" to hack road signs, which is illegal.

The signs are often owned and operated by private contractors.

Dallas saw a string of road sign hackings in 2016, with messages including "DONALD TRUMP IS A SHAPE SHIFTING LIZARD!!" and "WORK IS CANCELED / GO BACK HOME."

More recently, traffic signs in Berkeley, California, were hacked with more ominous messages such as "THE FUTURE SUCKS" and "EXPECT PED/BIKE DEATHS," Berkeleyside reported at the time.

Hale said she's heard of it happening around the country, so she wasn't surprised that it finally happened to the Central Kentucky district.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 'Send nudes': Kentucky road sign hacked on Whitley County highway