Hackers manipulated hurricane alarms to wake up residents of two cities in the middle of the night

Latest update time：2019-03-24

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What's the point of playing such a prank?

Text | Dazhuang Travel

Hackers' imaginations are endless. Not long ago, Leifeng.com reported an incident in which the in-flight entertainment system was damaged. Yesterday, foreign media reported an incident in which a prank disrupted a hurricane alert.

At 2:30 a.m. on March 12 this year, residents of two towns in Texas were suddenly awakened by the sudden hurricane warning, which made them panic. What was even more terrifying was that the hurricane warning went on and off for an hour and a half, and finally stopped at 4 a.m. (it was forcibly turned off by the relevant functional departments), leaving the residents confused and not knowing whether to pack up their valuables and run away.

It would be fine if there really was a hurricane coming, but this time the alarm was a complete false alarm, and the "prank" behind it was actually a hacker.

DeSoto and Lancaster, which are affected by the warning, have always been the hardest hit areas by hurricanes. The local government has established a hurricane warning system to reduce the losses caused by wind disasters. Once the alarm sounds, local residents must take necessary measures to protect themselves.

It is reported that the local hurricane warning system was completely hacked this time. They set a total of 30 alarms, of which Lancaster sounded 20 times, and the remaining 10 times broke the dreams of DeSoto residents. What is depressing is that before this false alarm, the local emergency warning system had never been visited by hackers.

At present, the local police are investigating this false alarm. The police said they will definitely catch the culprits and bring them to justice because the destruction of such a critical system is a criminal act. As for the motives of the hackers, it is still unclear.

Residents of the two towns were also very helpless about the hurricane warning "bombing". They directly held a "complaint conference" on Twitter, and one resident even said that he felt the end of the world was coming.

"I'm in DeSoto. The hurricane warning system is going crazy. It goes off and on and on and off. What is going on? It's really scary. We need official answers."

— Summer G™️ (@summer_galvez) March 12, 2019

"Why is there a false alarm about a hurricane in Lancaster? It's really annoying to be woken up at 2:30 in the middle of the night!"

— Deanna Laurence (@LaurenceDeanna) March 12, 2019

After the hurricane warning system was forcibly shut down, the relevant departments were helpless until the system was finally restored to normal on March 17. Fortunately, during the five days when the system was offline, God did not cause any trouble, and the residents of DeSoto and Lancaster did not have to live under the shadow of the hurricane.

After the alarm system was hacked, the DeSoto government asked residents to connect to the Red Alert Weather Warning System, and they also claimed that the old alarm system would be restored soon. The Lancaster government said that residents can get relevant weather information through the government website, social media or the Red Alert Weather Warning System.

In fact, hackers attacking hurricane warning systems is not a whim, as there have been precedents before.

As early as April 2017, a mysterious hacker broke into all the hurricane warning systems in Dallas. In April 2018, a group of white hat hackers also tried their hand at it. They easily took over the warning system with just a $35 radio. Obviously, for hackers, breaking into such a system is just a casual game after dinner, because the people working on security in government departments are really amateurs.

Leifeng.com VIA hackread

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