White supremacist group Patriot Front hacked Alabama road sign in nationwide effort to ‘harass and intimidate’: SPLC

Patriot Front is responsible for over 80% of white supremacist propaganda distributed since 2019, by distributing banners, fliers, posters, and stickers. They are known for participating in alarming masked “flash demonstrations” across the nation.

The neo-Nazi extremist group also has a knack for reprogramming digital street signs, and their latest target was in Alabama on Monday.

The messages were captured by motorists along Interstate 65 near Clanton and posted on social media, with the words “Patriot Front” and “Reclaim America.”

See also: Alabama man among masked Patriot Front members arrested at Idaho pride parade

The Reclaim America phrase is one of the group’s rallying calls and highlights their hopes of preserving the cultural and ethnic origins of their white ancestors.

“They’re definitely trying to harass and intimidate with the signage to the targeted groups,” said Jeff Tischauser, senior research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.

“So, something like ‘Reclaim America,’ that’s their slogan. They think America has been stolen from them. They think that American, European roots have been stolen and needs to be reclaimed. This is how far they have gone.”

He added, “They think that Jewish people, Black and brown folks, LGBTQ communities, women, Muslims, they target a lot of different groups. But with this Reclaim America, it’s really a broad message that suggests they need to take back power from their perceived enemies.”

Vandalizing billboards is a strategy Patriot Front has used before, according to those who track the group.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League has tracked similar incidents in Texas, Washington, California, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.

Thus far, there have been no known arrests nor any repercussions against Patriot Front or their members in altering road signs, according to Morgan Lynn Moon, investigative researcher with the Center on Extremism with the Anti-Defamation League.

“When people are reprogramming these street signs, they are concealing their faces and are wearing hats and sunglasses,” Moon said. “It’s difficult to identify them when they are reprogramming these signs. With the Alabama sign, I hope that is no longer the case.”

Investigation continues

The I-65 hack was publicized on Twitter, after a motorist identified the messaging from the white supremacist group.

The messaging is drawing some sharp rebukes on Tuesday.

“We condemn this devious attempt to promote hate on our nation’s highways and urge Americans to stand together in repudiation of all bigoted ideologies,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

John McWiliams, spokesman with the Alabama Department of Transportation’s West Center Region, said Tuesday the digital board is managed by a private contractor on site, Birmingham-based Dunn Construction Co.

He said while the state is “still gathering specifics on this portable message board’s capabilities, typically these message boards are programmed at the boards themselves, although some do have remote capabilities.”

McWilliams said that ALDOT is looking into how to “better prevent incidents like this in the future.”

Dunn Construction, in a statement to AL.com, said the messaging signs are provided by a subcontractor, and are intended to share safety and travel information while assisting motorists as they travel safely through construction zones.

“We are aware that this kind of tampering has been occurring nationwide, and we are taking steps to help prevent situations like this. There is no place for messages of hate on these traffic zone signs. We are working with the Alabama Department of Transportation and the subcontractor who provides and oversees these signs to look into the situation.”

Moon, who shared a screenshot image of a similar road sign message in Oklahoma, said Patriot Front is “not hiding what they are doing” and will show their actions in altering road signs on their Telegram channel.

Easy to hack

Electronic road signs, in general, have become targets by vandals in recent years. The result is often an absurd viewpoint into whatever the hacker wants to say. The most popular road hack sign is a simple warning about zombies ahead.

Marcus Sachs, deputy director of research with the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University, said the road signs are easy targets for hackers.

Signs are often altered physically, or remotely over the internet through easy-to-remember passwords often shared online.

“It’s often too easy to do this,” he said. “You don’t have to be a world-class hacker from Russia or anywhere. It’s unfortunate but a lot of times, these companies don’t see themselves as targets or the harm that is involved. So, these machines and devices are left unsecured, sitting on the side of a road, 24/7. Breaking into them is not hard.”

Sachs said that by now, construction companies should be aware that their signs could be vandalized and hacked.

“They should do everything in their power to keep them from being tampered with,” he said.

Moon said that Patriot Front will post online about the signs they have reprogrammed in the past.

“They are not hiding what they are doing,” she said.

Recruitment efforts

The hacking of the I-65 sign is extra worrisome, some say, because of Patriot Front’s reputation as a hate group and the organization’s connection to the tragic 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Patriot Front is an offshoot of Vanguard American (VA), which gained national attention after the rally in Charlottesville after a white supremacist and member, James Alex Fields, Jr., drove his car into a crowd of protestors. Killed was activist Heather Heyer.

According to the SPLC, 18 days after the rally, Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau broke with VA and formed his new group.

Moon said that Patriot Front is divided into several regional “networks,” each run by a “regional director,” who organizers regional meetings, handles new recruits and keeps Rousseau informed on the network’s actions and growth.

A leak of Patriot Front’s international communications, reported by Unicorn Riot last year and illustrating the group’s use of anti-Semitic language and racial slurs, also revealed a map of the group’s regions. Much of North and South Alabama and Georgia, and portions of south Tennessee, are included within the group’s Network 6.

It’s unclear if anyone from that network was responsible for the I-65 messaging.

“These regional cells are responsible for local level recruitment and ensuring their network reaches their activism quota and to place propaganda out there on a weekly basis or they are suspended from the group,” Moon said.

‘So much hatred’

Other areas of Alabama have been targeted by Patriot Front before. Graffiti was found on the Slossfield Community Center in Birmingham last fall which read, “Reclaim America Patriot Front.US,” according to a story from The Lede’s Heather Gann.

The venue was notable in its history, Gann noted in her piece, because the Slossfield building is a landmark, and carries a historical significance to Birmingham’s Black community. It was once used as a site to train Black physicians and nurses, according to the Birmingham Historical Society’s website.

“There is so much hatred in the darker corners of this group that they don’t necessarily want to broadcast to American because they know that it’s a losing message,” said Tischauser, with the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “Their real effort is trying to pretend or just show America that they are somewhat patriotic when, in reality, they’re worshipping slavery.”

He noted that the leaked chats revealed Patriot Front members worshipping the losers of war against the U.S, such as Nazi Germany and Confederate slaveholders. During demonstrations, they are known to fly the American flag upside down to convey their belief that the nation is in distress, and no longer represents them.

They also use what is commonly called the Betsy Ross flag, which features 13 alternating red and white stripes and 13 white stars – an early design of the U.S. flag.

“They might pretend that, ‘hey, we’re this patriotic group look at us, we’re flying the Betsy Ross flag, which is the flag that was popular in the Revolutionary War times,’” said Tischauser. “If you look not even deep, but take just a little bit of a poke inside, you’ll see it’s full of racists.”

The altering of a road sign in Alabama might be minor compared to what Patriot Front members have done elsewhere. Members of the group have destroyed dozens of murals, statues, and other public displays celebrating feminist icons, Black culture, LGBTQ pride or commemorate victims of racially targeted violence.

Group members also face legal issues from recent incidences, notably from about one years ago in Idaho after 31 masked members of Patriot Front were arrested inside a U-Haul on suspicion of conspiracy to riot during a “Pride in the Park” event. One of those arrested was Wesley Evan Van Horn of Lexington in Lauderdale County.

Rousseau was also arrested, and his case is pending for later this year.