Department For Transport website starts showing explicit PORNOGRAPHY instead of dull traffic statistics and the ministry's business plan

  • Subdomain charts.dft.gov.uk was showing adult material instead of traffic charts
  • Thought the site is an abandoned domain not used by the Transport Department
  • US government website was targeted with viagra adverts and porn in September

A Department for Transport website today showed explicit pornography instead of dull traffic statistics and the ministry's business plan. 

The subdomain charts.dft.gov.uk was showing a display of adult material into the evening and it was not clear when it would be taken down. 

The charts site usually features business plan documents and statistics on various government services including driving tests, summary statistics on speeding fines and data on the number of public transport users.  

A Department for Transport website today showed explicit pornography instead of dull traffic statistics and the ministry's business plan

A Department for Transport website today showed explicit pornography instead of dull traffic statistics and the ministry's business plan

It is thought the site is an abandoned gov.uk address that is not actually used by the Department for Transport.  

A search of other government domains revealed several other apparently unused websites including dft.gov.uk, which leads to a password protected page titled 'EU Exit Haulers'. 

The Department for Transport said: 'A disused, dormant page of the Department for Transport's Gov.uk website has been used. 

'No information or data has been lost or compromised. The website address has since been permanently deleted.' 

The site usually features business plan documents and statistics on various government services including driving tests, summary statistics on speeding fines and data on the number of public transport users

The site usually features business plan documents and statistics on various government services including driving tests, summary statistics on speeding fines and data on the number of public transport users

The surprising content was first noticed by The Crow, which suggested someone had set the site's DNS record away from the usual charts to a webpage hosting adult material. 

However it was not immediately confirmed if the domain was hijacked and diverted or hacked and changed.  

It is not the first time a government website has been targeted with adult content - in September several US government pages were filled with adverts for viagra and porn after hackers were able to access the domains.