Oregon Lottery and other businesses find themselves in fuzzy situation

Includes video report

By Kate Northrop

Last week, digital LED screens displaying a furry animation mysteriously popped up on several of the Oregon Lottery's billboard advertisements, leading to speculation and confusion from both spectators and the Lottery itself.

In what is loosely being called a "furry hack," roughly seven Oregon Lottery billboards were taken over last week by LED screens that played a furry cartoon animation on repeat.

The Oregon Lottery uses billboards with giant LED screens across the state to display current jackpot amounts. However, between Aug. 12 and 14, passersby in several locations could not view the jackpot amounts. Instead, many onlookers were perplexed to see a clip of an orange human-like cat played on repeat.

"We are working with our vendor to resolve an issue related to the digital display on our billboards," Lottery External Communications Program Manager Melanie Mesaros told KOIN 6 News.

The animation played on billboards in Coos Bay, Albany, and Portland. Four of these billboards were located in the Portland area.

The clip is credited to artist @SH_4RK, who was just as surprised to learn that his artwork was making the rounds in these alleged "furry hacks."

"Wait that's my art hello," SH_4RK said on X in reply to a user who had posted a photo of the clip in public.

In addition to Lottery billboards, the same furry clip has apparently been circulating on LED screens in other locations in the U.S. An X user took a photo of either the same or similar animation playing on a screen at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.

Another X user posted their own sighting at a PenAir Credit Union, which is a business exclusive to Florida and Alabama.

The animations appearing on different businesses' screens and in locations across the U.S. implies that the hack did not specifically target the Oregon Lottery.

One of the Lottery's affected billboards, which the Lottery paid to use, is owned by Meadow Outdoor Advertising, but both parties said neither of them were responsible for the furry spectacle. They pointed the finger at third-party vendor Daktronics, the operator of the LED displays.

The Oregon Lottery contacted Daktronics about the issue, Mesaros told KOIN 6 News, and the LED screens were reverted back to their original use on the night of Aug. 14.

"This was a global issue for the vendor Daktronics, which operates the LED screens," Mesaros explained to the news outlet.

KOIN 6 News also reached out to Daktronics to ask whether the animations on the LED screens was related to a hacking incident, to which the vendor said, "We were made aware of a limited number of locations where unknown content had been displayed. This issue applies only to specific hardware devices that were accessible publicly on the Internet (not properly protected by firewalls or within a VPN network). The issue is not widespread. We addressed impacted customer accounts and continue to actively monitor those locations."

Mead Outdoor Advertising manager Betsy Hege clarified that the company owns the affected billboard, but it does not have any control over the LED screen.

"Full digital screens are the responsibility of the owner operator, but the LEDs like this are controlled by the client," Hege told KOIN 6 News. "We all work hard to prevent hacks and have protocols should it happen."

Meadow Outdoor Advertising has plans to sit down with the Lottery and Daktronics and discuss the peculiar incident "in the coming days."

"We will have a good debrief with the Lottery and Daktronics to understand what happened," Hege continued. "Meadow works hard to be a good neighbor, so we are saddened that our signs were displaying the furry image."

VIDEO: See the furry

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