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Hackers Take Over Unsecured Radio Transmitters, Play Anti-Trump Song (arstechnica.com)
Ars Technica is reporting that "a certain model of Low Power FM radio transmitter with known vulnerabilities has been targeted in a new wave of radio-station hacks this week." Hackers have taken advantage of an exploit that was known all the way back in April 2016 to take over terrestrial radio stations and broadcast the YG and Nipsey Hussle song "Fuck Donald Trump." From the report: News of the song's unexpected playback on radio stations began emerging shortly after Trump's inauguration on January 20, and the hack has continued to affect LPFM stations -- a type of smaller-radius radio station that began to roll out after the FCC approved the designation in 2000. Over a dozen stations experienced confirmed hacks in recent weeks, with more unconfirmed reports trickling in across the nation. Thus far, the stations' commonality isn't the states of operation or music formats; it's the transmitter. Specifically, hackers have targeted products in the Barix Exstreamer line, which can decode many audio file formats and send them along for LPFM transmission. As Barix told its products' owners in 2016, Exstreamer devices openly connected to the Internet are incredibly vulnerable to having their remote login passwords discovered and systems compromised. The company recommends using full, 24-character passwords and placing any live Internet connections behind firewalls or VPNs. Reports have yet to connect any dots on why the exploit has apparently focused on the YG and Nipsey Hussle song -- though it is fairly popular, having recently finished in the Top 15 of the Village Voice's 2016 Pazz and Jop music critics' poll. Plus, the uncensored lyrics and topical nature are certainly more likely to catch people's attention, especially when played on stations with formats like oldies, classic rock, and Tejano.
Yes, let me tell you. The Village Voice's "Pazz and Jop" chart is where I go first to see what's trending amongst large swaths of Americans.
In fact, I and everyone in here in the office celebrate the entire catalog of "Nipsey Hussle".
Honestly if you did not have a VPN tunnel in place you deserve this in spades. Only a complete and utter moron would have something as important as the radio station audio feed to be unprotected.
But after working at several radio stations in my life. 100% of radio station owners are pretty much drooling morons.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is not the "right" doing this. That's why there's the new world "alt-right". These are NOT your honest respectable Republicans we've had for so long. There is not just a left and the right in the US, that's just stereotyping people so yu don't have to think too hard. Donald Trump doesn't fit into that mold, he's not really left or right. He won the vote from people who are scared, not from people who have a long held well thought out political viewpoint, and he exploited that fear. The this happens with most politician's these days from every stripe, it is not unique to The Donald.
When you start splitting the country up into 50% on the one side of the political aisle who are good and honest people and 50% on the other side who are assholes, then you have stopped using your brain and have become a part of the problem. And as long as people continue feeling that way then we'll continue to have abysmal elections where our choices are between staunch bigot from party A versus staunch bigot from party B, and we get stuck again with deciding which is the lesser of two evils.
Why not look at it this way: Everyone is a giant selfish asshole. What makes society work is that we try to hide that base animal nature and pretend to be higher beings. The giant assholes on the left and the right need to learn how to live together or society stops working.