How did hackers put Charlie Kirk memes on a billboard? We asked an expert
When a Lakewood police officer caught a glimpse of a shopping center’s billboard Tuesday night, he gazed on an unusual sight.
Instead of its typical advertising, the sign for the Lakewood Towne Center displayed a slideshow of images depicting Charlie Kirk.
More specifically, memes. Strange ones.
The hijacked display shifted through altered images laden with tongue-in-cheek Internet references, depicting Kirk in various post-ironic scenes.
One meme showed Kirk kissing the controversial murdered rapper XXXTentacion. Another depicted Kirk as an incoming playable character in the popular video game Fortnite, as seen on videos posted to social media.
Many of the images had accompanying text saying the pictures were sponsored by Turning Point USA, Kirk’s conservative nonprofit, and AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group.
A few hours after police were made aware of the hacking, the sign was turned off.
The Lakewood Police Department has never dealt with a situation like this before, according to Sergeant Charles Porche. They are investigating the incident.
Lakewood Towne Center property management did not immediately reply to requests for a comment.
The exact time the hack took place is unclear, and it’s estimated the images were up for hours.
The strangeness of the situation begs the question, how could someone have hacked a public LED display?
According to Deveeshree Nayak, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Washington, there are many ways one could go about it.
If bad actors break into the control panel at the sign’s physical location, they can use the USB port to gain access, Nayak said. Hackers could also take advantage of unsecured Wi-Fi connections, weak password credentials and outdated software to remotely take control of the sign.
Whoever hijacked the billboard does not necessarily have to be a computer expert. With enough research from the Internet and the right tools, anyone can access the sign.
Businesses can take steps to protect their signs and other technology from hacking attempts.
“As a cybersecurity professional, one thing we always tell people is that physical security plays a vital role,” Nayak said. This means making the panel difficult to access in person and monitoring the site with cameras.
Besides the more obvious protections like multi-factor authentication and strong password policies, she also suggested users implement cellular firewalls and mac filtering. Mac filtering is a network security process that lets people designate which devices can connect to Wi-Fi.
This story was originally published November 15, 2025 at 11:51 AM.
