Romanian prisoner hacks prison IT system in plot made for a Netflix movie

According to Risky Biz News, Catalin Cimpanu has a great write-up about how a Romanian prisoner hacked the country’s prison management platform. The incident took place in August and continued through October, and it appears to have originated in the city of Dej in Romania’s Transilvania region, at a prison hospital complex.

A prisoner found a way to hack the tablets and kiosks installed in the Dej hospital prison and at other Romanian penitentiaries, which allow access to an online platform managed by the National Penitentiary Association (ANP) using a username and password. Prisoners can file requests, redeem days off their sentence by performing various jobs, or add money to a bank account that they can later use to shop for certain goods and services. The article notes that these systems are connected to the ANP platform and describe the potential implications of such access.