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Hackers claim LED software flaw put porn on Egypt highway billboard
The Cairo Report said a Telegram group claiming the Oct. 29 Giza billboard porn display told it they exploited LED-display software, also reaching screens in Malaysia, Brazil and China.
A hacking group told The Cairo Report it exploited a vulnerability in software used to send content to LED advertising screens, including a Giza highway billboard that showed sexually explicit video on Oct. 291.
The outlet said the footage appeared on a large electronic billboard on the 26 July Corridor in Giza, which links Cairo with western suburbs, and that videos circulated on social media before authorities suspended advertising displays along the road and opened an investigation1.
The group, which The Cairo Report identified via a Telegram channel named Leakers$ whose address appeared on the displayed material, said members found thousands of exposed systems in about two hours of automated scanning and named Iraq, Malaysia, Brazil and China among countries where it claimed access1.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said Thursday evening that an unnamed international advertising company's website had been hacked and that the same footage appeared on screens in several countries at once, according to The Cairo Report1. The ministry did not name the company, the countries, or suspects, and did not explain how a website breach would control roadside displays1.
A person speaking for the group told The Cairo Report the Egyptian billboard was not singled out1. "It was a genuine vulnerability in the software responsible for transmitting content to LED displays," the person said1.
The representative said the systems were found by a random automated scan involving people using the names Never, 19ylegal, CH and Nivex, and described additional weaknesses in the systems' own pages and interfaces, the report said1. The Cairo Report said the group did not provide enough technical evidence to establish the precise method1.
The affected screen is operated by Arabian United, an Egyptian-Saudi advertising venture of United Media Services and Saudi-listed Arabian Contracting Services Co., The Cairo Report said1. It described UMS as an intelligence-linked media conglomerate and cited the Saudi company's 2025 annual report as saying its Egyptian subsidiary runs 1,926 billboards, including 239 digital units1.
Arabian United acknowledged unauthorized access to one of its screens, said it suspended the display, and said it was investigating with authorities, according to The Cairo Report, which cited Youm71. Security sources told Al-Shorouk that investigators were examining whether the footage came from an external intrusion or had been uploaded by someone who operated the screen1.
The Interior Ministry said legal procedures had begun but did not say whether the inquiry would examine the Egyptian operator or contractors, The Cairo Report reported1. Independent confirmation of screens outside Egypt, of the software product involved, and of the claimed scan was not in the account1.
