Isle of Wight: Council's electric vehicle chargers hacked to show porn site

Isle of Wight Council said staff were visiting the charge points to cover up the "inappropriate" website showing on the screen

Electric vehicle charging points in a council's car parks have been hacked to show a porn website on their screens.

Isle of Wight Council has three charge points in Quay Road, Ryde, Cross Street, Cowes and Moa Place, Freshwater.

In a statement the council apologised "to anyone that may have found the inappropriate web content".

The authority said staff were due to visit the charge points "to ensure the third party web address is covered up".

It is understood the chargers were meant to display the network's own website, but the web address had been redirected and was instead taking visitors to a pornographic site.

The council said: "We are saddened to learn that a third-party web address displayed on our electric vehicle (EV) signage appears to have been hacked."

It added the charge points were originally part of the Chargepoint Genie network but have recently been transferred to the GeniePoint network.

The authority said it was also aware some charge points in council car parks were unreliable.

It said these were due to be replaced with "new charge points over the next few months".