by brandonhall on 1/13/18, 7:06 PM with 386 comments
by packetslave on 1/13/18, 8:51 PM
by amckinlay on 1/14/18, 12:42 AM
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System#Inciden...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System#Fal...
by intopieces on 1/13/18, 8:30 PM
A similar, if obviously much smaller and less disastrous example, happens at my apartment about 4 times a week: the fire alarms for entire floors of my apartment building are easily triggered by people smoking in the breeze ways or burning their dinner. The result is that I routinely ignore fire alarms because the likelihood of a real fire is has been demonstrated to be exceedingly small.
by makecheck on 1/13/18, 8:32 PM
by nstj on 1/13/18, 7:19 PM
Everyone cheered when the “False alarm” SMS came through across the phones.
Secure your networks people - this electronic psyops stuff is real.
by Stratoscope on 1/13/18, 8:09 PM
If they had gotten away from the windows and ducked and covered, they would have been fine.
by runesoerensen on 1/13/18, 8:21 PM
You'd think the people who "pressed the wrong button" would be able to press the same button again?
by MollyR on 1/13/18, 8:21 PM
It makes sense to have drills right now, India (tests with war against China and Pakistan), China (Telling their soldiers to be prepared to die for China), Russia(tests against Nato), and North Korea (getting ready for war with the US) are all having military tests for basically what will quickly become another world war.
We are really at a big crossroads as a large amount of people are rejecting globalization in many different countries. And with such major powers willing to fight hard for resources like Ukraine, South China Sea, Oil Eu pipelines, and not even mentioning the increasing gulf between various countries on core ideologies and creeds.
We really are at a new and dangerous crossroads.
by r721 on 1/14/18, 5:50 AM
Approx. 8:05 a.m. – A routine internal test during a shift change was initiated. This was a test that involved the Emergency Alert System, the Wireless Emergency Alert, but no warning sirens.
8:07 a.m. – A warning test was triggered statewide by the State Warning Point, HI-EMA.
8:10 a.m. – State Adjutant Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, validated with the U.S. Pacific Command that there was no missile launch. Honolulu Police Department notified of the false alarm by HI-EMA.
8:13 a.m. – State Warning Point issues a cancellation of the Civil Danger Warning Message. This would have prevented the initial alert from being rebroadcast to phones that may not have received it yet. For instance, if a phone was not on at 8:07 a.m., if someone was out of range and has since came into cell coverage (Hikers, Mariners, etc.) and/or people getting off a plane.
8:20 a.m. – HI-EMA issues public notification of cancellation via their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
8:24 a.m. – Governor Ige retweets HI-EMA’s cancellation notice.
8:30 a.m. – Governor posts cancellation notification to his Facebook page.
8:45 a.m. – After getting authorization from FEMA Integral Public Alert and Warning System, HIEMA issued a “Civil Emergency Message” remotely. The following action was executed by the Emergency Alert System (EAS): 1. EAS message over Local TV/Radio Audio Broadcast & Television Crawler Banner. “False Alarm. There is no missile threat to Hawaii.” “False Alarm. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. False Alarm.” 2. Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) “False Alarm. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii.”
9:30 a.m. – Governor makes initial media notification.
9:34 a.m. – Governor’s message posted to his Facebook and Twitter accounts."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hawaii-releases-timeline-o...
by downandout on 1/13/18, 10:27 PM
There are lots of potential explanations...whatever happened, there is stuff to work on in the aftermath of this. Barring the idea that it was an actual missile that failed to hit its target, if these alert systems are vulnerable, that's a bad thing. This could have caused serious chaos in a large city like New York. Techniques like this could be used to cause gridlock before a terrorist attack, suppress voter turnout on election days, etc.
by euvitudo on 1/13/18, 8:49 PM
Hopefully instead of seeking to cast blame or personnel firings, etc., folks will learn what it is they lack in emergency response.
by Flammy on 1/13/18, 7:36 PM
by jmadsen on 1/13/18, 10:14 PM
Now we get to see & analyze the "real life" reaction to this dress rehearsal. I'm sure everyone knew without this that a real alert would be full of SNAFUs, but you don't usually get a chance to see what they would really be if everyone actually believed the alert was real.
Hopefully (and I think they will ) they'll be smart enough to use this rare opportunity.
by f- on 1/13/18, 8:55 PM
For folks who want to understand the actual dangers and survivability of an ICBM strike, I strongly suggest a book from the 1960s written by one of the folks involved in the US nuclear program during the Cold War:
http://www.madisoncountyema.com/nwss.pdf
It cuts through many of the Hollywood-perpetuated myths - the certain and painful death in case of a nuclear strike, or the 10,000-year radioactive wasteland that's going to be left behind.
For example, it discusses why the oft-ridiculed duck-and-cover strategy is actually surprisingly effective. The primary threat from an air burst is very conventional - a shockwave and an intense burst of thermal radiation. Shelter - any shelter - greatly improves your survival odds.
The fallout from air bursts is comparatively modest (i.e., tends to be far lower than from an event such as Chernobyl) and while lethal, it decays very rapidly - dropping to reasonably safe levels in a matter of days, not centuries. Staying sheltered for 2-10 days greatly improves your odds, and the thickness of material between you and any surfaces that gather dust (roofs, ground) matters more than anything else. Here's a handy chart:
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/58cc34b9112f7043268...
In other words, having enough food and water in your home to weather out a nasty stowstorm also makes you well-prepared for the nuclear apocalypse. Mattresses and bulky furniture provide decent shielding when all other options fail.
The long-term effect of fallout tend to be exaggerated, too; water from streams, deep lakes, or wells should be safe or get safe very quickly. Removing a layer of topsoil allows relatively safe crops to be grown. Mild radiation sickness, at the levels where people start experiencing vomiting and hair loss, is actually pretty survivable and has a relatively modest impact on your odds of developing cancer later in life.
(Plus, keep in mind that more than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted so far, including around 900 in Nevada alone; while they had some statistically observable negative effects, they have not turned the world into a nuclear wasteland.)
Of course, don't get me wrong - even a single nuclear strike would be awful, and a large-scale confrontation would mean untold damages and loss of life. But the important point is that a lot of people would survive and would be able to do well in the aftermath - more so if we teach them about some common-sense preparedness steps.
The main reason why our understanding of the nuclear risk is so lopsided is because for decades, many nuclear disarmament activists (including many prominent screenwriters, celebrities, and pundits) had a vested interested in portraying the already-awful outcomes of a potential nuclear war as far less survivable and far more hopeless than in reality; the mockery of duck-and-cover, the "barren wasteland" imagery in the movies, and the largely-discredited scientific theories like the "nuclear winter"... all helped to advance (otherwise noble) goals, but at the expense of teaching people that there's nothing they can do save themselves.
Plus, of course, after Cold War, we have fewer reasons to worry. It's hard to top the Cuban Missile Crisis. There's plenty of politicized hyperbole around nuclear tensions right now, but the reality is that a large-scale strike on the US is a lot less likely than throughout a good part of the 20th century.
PS. I have a short summary of NWSS and some other points about this topic (and other, more mundane but plausible hazards) in my "Doomsday Prepping for Less Crazy Folk" - http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/
by nodesocket on 1/13/18, 8:10 PM
Besides the fear and chaos potentially caused to people in Hawaii there are financial implications if the stock market were open.
by vtail on 1/13/18, 8:09 PM
by Simulacra on 1/13/18, 8:05 PM
by napsterbr on 1/13/18, 8:04 PM
by exabrial on 1/13/18, 10:57 PM
I'm hoping the withdrawal of exercises of the USA and peace talks actually get us somewhere, but we've been to the table 100 times, I don't see much changing.
by dboreham on 1/13/18, 7:30 PM
by leothekim on 1/13/18, 8:00 PM
by chki on 1/13/18, 8:41 PM
by subcosmos on 1/13/18, 8:00 PM
by baxtr on 1/13/18, 8:55 PM
https://nwschat.weather.gov/p.php?pid=201801131825-PHFO-NOHW...
by djsumdog on 1/13/18, 7:58 PM
In the first case, we'll probably only be told about it if they actually make an arrest and the system is patched.
The second is an interesting case, we'll come back to.
The final one: it was intentional and used to track what happened on the islands, and to also watch that information propagate back to the mainland. I feel like all of America has forgotten about PRISM/the NSA. With their immense data collection architectures and ties to large tech companies, they could easily filter the keywords and images they want, and get measurements of how quickly this information propagates and how people react.
Even more freaky, they can use language processing to even get numbers about what people might be feeling! I think we've all forgotten about this and it should be a chilling affect.
In the final case, we will, of course, never know. Anyone who suggests it will be called a conspiracy theorist (even though there is evidence the US government has preformed operations like this in the past, e.g. COINTELPRO) and the official line will be either reason 1 or 2 .. possibly with a patsy to arrest if need be. The truth will be declassified in 30~40 years so some people will be able to say "I told you so," but long beyond the time period anyone will actually care.
by Simulacra on 1/13/18, 8:08 PM
by sumoboy on 1/14/18, 4:34 AM
by nfread on 1/14/18, 4:40 PM
by m3kw9 on 1/13/18, 11:12 PM
by jordache on 1/15/18, 5:30 PM
by brerlapn on 1/14/18, 12:25 AM
Although FEMA is actively developing more robust controls for their IPAWS system, the controls on user behavior and what functions can be triggered in the system have limited capabilities to enforce restrictions (one would be the requirement for a digital signature to accept a CAP message as valid). If you listen to the press conference [2] Hawaii says they will now be using a 'two person rule' which indicates that the most significant controls they have are manual/behavioral (not automated in the system by user roles or automated workflows based on state policies). Few information systems do much more than have a few coarsely-permissioned user roles, though, so it's not like FEMA or Hawaii has tried to cheap out on the functionality - it's just not a very common capability and emergency alerts isn't a mission where you want to be using 'interesting new tools' that aren't well tested.
There are several alerting systems - the Emergency Alert System (EAS), the Wireless Alert System (WEA), and Non-Weather Emergency Alerts (NWEM). States use FEMA's IPAWS system for sending alerts, which [1] this one seems to have been sent through (localities don't necessarily participate in IPAWS, which is voluntary, but the Hawaii EMA was the one that sent this). Some questions I would have about this would be: - IPAWS messages must have a digital signature to be accepted by the system, however based the Hawaii EMA press conference and articles which say 'an employee made an error' I would guess that the digital signature is not used in a way that is actually tied to the official authorized to declare the alert but to is accessible to their whole emergency Operations Group. - Are they sending test messages with that signature? With a 'two-person rule', it sounds from the press conference that it isn't enforced by the machine (not like having two keys which both have to be turned to send the message) but by the first person stepping away from the machine and letting the other person push the "are you sure you want to send this?" button. That doesn't seem much better, but changing the system to do that gets away from the basic CAP architecture and isn't likely to happen soon.
The FCC is currently working on a proceeding regarding updating WEA to allow more geographic targeting of alerts, the way the other alerts can be targeted at specific locales. The current system dates back to 2011 or 2012, and is pretty coarsely-targeted, which is probably why you're getting Amber Alerts on your phone for a town that is 6 hours away just because it's in your state. You can find it at Proceeding Numbers 15-91 and 15-94 [3].
[1] You can see the message here, which archives messages sent via IPAWS: http://ipawsnonweather.alertblogger.com/?p=18764 [2] http://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/press-conference-missile-alarm-l... [3] https://www.fcc.gov/fcc-announces-comment-dates-rulemaking-s...
This gives some more technical details on IPAWS and the Common Access Protocol that these messages use: https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/ipaws/ipaws_cap_mg.pdf
by jogundas on 1/13/18, 8:00 PM
by e0m on 1/13/18, 9:22 PM
by gtcode on 1/14/18, 3:48 AM
by jacksmith21006 on 1/13/18, 8:55 PM
by Feniks on 1/13/18, 10:11 PM
by inlined on 1/13/18, 8:21 PM
"Per White House pool reports, Trump was out on a golf course when the alert was sent."
by mozumder on 1/13/18, 10:09 PM
by _Codemonkeyism on 1/13/18, 8:07 PM
by paulie_a on 1/13/18, 8:19 PM
Fun fact, in my small hometown you could and possibly still activate the tornado warning system using DTMF and a transmitter on some frequency in the 149mhz range.
To clarify, I never actually attempted it but I had a uniden radio scanner in my teens and noticed the pattern for the 12:00 test.
by rumcajz on 1/13/18, 8:46 PM
by mxuribe on 1/13/18, 7:38 PM
