Ellen Messmer, at Network World, published a short, entertaining article about an unemployed Russian system administrator who hacked into a giant public billboard on a Moscow street, replacing the advertisement with a pornographic movie.

…Interior Ministry's high-tech crime unit says the suspected billboard hacker is a 41-year-old unemployed man who police believe used the IP address of an organization based in Chechnya to breach a Moscow server…

Needless to say, this stopped traffic both on the street and on the sidewalks stuffing them with gawkers and cell phone videophiles.  Considering the ‘rubber-neck’ traffic created by someone changing a tire where I live, I can only imagine the backup caused this incident.  Taking the security of the billboard server and public safety issues of stopping traffic aside, this article underscored for me the idle hands environment we find ourselves into today with unemployment rates steadily rising. 

Statements attributed to police sources says the hacker was breaking into computers out of curiosity and had admitted to the stunt, which he allegedly said was an effort to entertain

At least in this case, the alleged intent was curiosity and entertainment rather than data theft or destruction. I also consider the distribution method in this case and how the billboard could have been made to show healthcare information, credit card numbers, private financial data, etc…