Tag: Emergency Alert System

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FEMA just tested the US national emergency alert system

emergency alert

FEMA will test its national emergency alert system later this week. Image Credits: Getty Images

Did you hear it? FEMA just ran its first nationwide test of the U.S. emergency alert system since the pandemic.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, tested both the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which broadcasts an emergency tone and message on televisions and radios, and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), a newer system that sends emergency notifications to smartphones. This was the second nationwide test of the WEA after its debut in 2018, and the first test for all U.S. cell phones of users who chose to opt-in to receive test alerts.

The test began around 2:20 p.m. ET. If you opted-in to the test, you likely got a message on your phone that said: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” (The FCC explains how to opt-in to test alerts.)

For the first time, the WEA test sent the same test message in Spanish to phones that have Spanish set as the default language.

This is what the test WEA emergency alert looks like. Image Credits: WA Emergency Management (opens in a new window)

Since the last nationwide test in 2019, FEMA said it has improved WEA to send longer, detailed messages to the majority of phones that support it. The update also allows authorities to include tappable links, like web addresses.

FEMA runs these tests every year or two to ensure the system is working properly. It’s no small task: A national emergency alert system designed to broadcast the same message to potentially hundreds of millions of people at any given time is fraught with technological hurdles that require close co-operation from the cell carriers and broadcast networks.

The EAS system has been around since the late 1990s, but WEA was developed more recently as more Americans rely on their phones. WEA alerts, like EAS alerts, are designed to be sent by local and state authorities for public safety alerts, missing children and imminent threats, such as severe weather. More recently, FEMA rolled out “presidential alerts,” which are supposed to be sent to every phone in the U.S. in the event of a national emergency. Presidential alerts, unlike other alerts, can be issued by the sitting president for any reason, and Americans cannot opt out.

WEA broadcasts emergency notifications through the cell towers of an affected area — such as an area about to be hit by a storm — rather than sending tens of millions of text messages, which would grind the cell networks to a halt. The alerts are created by local, state or federal authorities and are authenticated by FEMA through the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, or IPAWS, and then passed to cell carriers to deliver the emergency alert.

The emergency alert system, though, is far from perfect. In 2018, an erroneous alert sent to Hawaii residents warned of an imminent ballistic missile threat,” and that “this is not a drill.” Minutes later, the alert was canceled. The false warning came as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea were at an all-time high, during which Pyongyang was regularly test-firing rockets used for its nuclear weapons program.

Security experts have also long warned that the EAS systems pose security risks. Last year, researchers found dozens of internet-connected, special-purpose servers used by television and radio stations to interrupt their broadcasts to relay an emergency alert, which they said could allow a hacker to break in and compromise the servers.

FEMA just sent a ‘Presidential Alert’ to millions of U.S. phones

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FEMA is about to run a national test of the Emergency Alert System

Testing, testing. Is this emergency warning system on? We’re about to find out.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, will later today buzz every television and radio in the U.S. with a test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS).

If you’re watching television or listening to radio at 2:20pm ET (11:20am PT), you’ll see and hear the test message.

“THIS IS A TEST of the National Emergency Alert System,” the message will read. “If this had been an actual emergency an official message would have followed the tone alert you heard at the start of this message. No action is required.”

FEMA’s Emergency Alert System is one of several systems in place to communicate emergency messages to the public on a mass scale.

As mobile devices became more common across the U.S. population than televisions and radios, FEMA began working on the Wireless Emergency System to send notifications to smartphone users. It was designed to allow the sitting president to send a message to all U.S. phones in the event of national emergency. Its first test ran last year after a short delay following Hurricane Florence on the east coast.

Today’s test, however, is to measure the system’s readiness to alert in the absence of cell service or internet connectivity.

“Other radio and television broadcast and cable stations in each state that monitor PEP stations will receive and broadcast the test message so that within minutes the test message should be presented by all radio and television, cable, wireline service providers and direct broadcast satellite service providers nationwide,” said FEMA in a blog post.

The first nationwide test was in 2011. This is the first nationwide test of the system this year, and the fifth test to date.

FEMA just sent a ‘Presidential Alert’ to millions of U.S. phones

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LTE flaws let hackers ‘easily’ spoof presidential alerts

Security vulnerabilities in LTE can allow hackers to “easily” spoof presidential alerts sent to mobile phones in the event of a national emergency.

Using off-the-shelf equipment and open-source software, a working exploit made it possible to send a simulated alert to every phone in a 50,000-seat football stadium with little effort, with the potential of causing “cascades of panic,” said researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder in a paper out this week.

Their attack worked in nine out of ten tests, they said.

Last year the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent out the first “presidential alert” test using the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. It was part of an effort to test the new state-of-the-art system to allow any president to send out a message to the bulk of the U.S. population in the event of a disaster or civil emergency.

But the system — which also sends out weather warnings and AMBER alerts — isn’t perfect. Last year amid tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, an erroneous alert warned residents of Hawaii of an inbound ballistic missile threat. The message mistakenly said the alert was “not a drill.”

Although no system is completely secure, much of the issues over the years have been as a result of human error. But the researchers said the LTE network used to transmit the broadcast message is the biggest weak spot.

Because the system uses LTE to send the message and not a traditional text message, each cell tower blasts out an alert on a specific channel to all devices in range. A false alert can be sent to every device in range if that channel is identified.

Making matters worse, there’s no way for devices to verify the authenticity of received alerts.

The researchers said fixing the vulnerabilities would “require a large collaborative effort between carriers, government stakeholders, and cell phone manufacturers.” They added that adding digital signatures to each broadcast alert is not a “magic solution” but would make it far more difficult to send spoofed messages.

A similar vulnerability in LTE was discovered last year, allowing researchers to not only send emergency alerts but also eavesdrop on a victim’s text messages and track their location.

FEMA just sent a ‘Presidential Alert’ to millions of U.S. phones

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Presidential alerts we really hope Trump won’t send…

Move over Twitter, President Trump now has the power to send every phone in the land a simultaneous message — thanks to the new “presidential alert”, tested by FEMA yesterday.

What’s it for? The idea is to enable the president of the United States to warn the nation of major threats — such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

FEMA did already have the power to mass text US phones, via the National Wireless Emergency Alert System devised by the Bush administration in 2006, which has been used for sending alerts about national emergencies like weather events or missing children at a local level.

But now the system has been expanded to allow for the White House to compose and send its own ‘presidential alert’ to all phones in a national emergency situation.

There is no opt-out.

Repeat: No opt-out.

Fortunately Congress did limit the substance of these alerts — to “natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters or threats to public safety”, further stipulating that:

Except to the extent necessary for testing the public alert and warning system, the public alert and warning system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.

But bearing in mind the ‘rip it up’ record of the current holder of office of the president of the US, there are no copper-bottomed guarantees about how ‘threat to public safety’ might be interpreted by president Trump.

So it remains a slightly mind-bending concept that the president could, say after a 3am binge-watch of his favorite TV show, fire out an alert entirely of his framing to EVERY US PHONE.

Technology is indeed a double-edged sword.

Here are a few ideas of presidential alerts we really hope Trump won’t be sending…

  • an accidental photo of a body part after he couldn’t figure out how to use the system and hit send accidentally
  • a text message intended for his son-in-law
  • “Donald Trump”
  • covfefe
  • an even worse spelling mistake, e.g. mangling the name of another world leader — like French president “Manuel Macaroon”
  • actual insults directed at other world leaders, e.g. suggesting Emmanuel Macron has a dandruff problem
  • threats of thermonuclear war
  • an unfortunate spoonerism, e.g. ‘the rockets are cot numbing’
  • a love sonnet to president Kim Jong-Un
  • encouragement to Russia to hack political opponents’ emails
  • a recipe for a “beautiful” chocolate cake
  • his golf handicap
  • an affiliate link to a brochure of Trump Tower
  • US stock market numbers
  • investment advice
  • an affiliate link to buy The Art of The Deal
  • any other book recommendations at all
  • a love sonnet to Ivanka Trump
  • a claim that the hurricane isn’t actually as bad as FEMA’s alert says it is
  • #MAGA
  • “Lock her up”
  • “His testimony was very credible, very credible”
  • “You also had some very fine people on both sides”
  • any claim about the size of the crowds at his inauguration
  • any claim about historical precedence and what his administration has achieved
  • all forms of self congratulation
  • his thoughts on the UN
  • his thoughts on NATO
  • his thoughts on the EU
  • his thoughts on China
  • his thoughts on the Queen
  • anything at all about women
  • “Melanie”
  • all insults about “the failing New York Times”
  • a heart emoji + the words “Tucker Carlson”
  • any text that includes the words “Fox & Friends”
  • any text that includes the phrase “America first”
  • a photo of Melania reclining on gilt furniture, in a gilt room, with some gilt statues
  • a selfie with anyone, especially Nigel Farage
  • any text written in ALL CAPS
  • any text ending with the word “Sad!”
  • his travel itinerary for his next trip to the Winter White House
  • a love sonnet to president Putin
  • ‘exciting’ real estate opportunities
  • credit for Brexit
  • a threat to Twitter not to shadowban conservative voices
  • “You’re fired!”
  • “Build the wall!”
  • “Mission accomplished!”
  • anything at all about president Obama
  • all sports commentary
  • anything containing the word “winning”
  • his thoughts on climate change
  • his thoughts on environmental protection
  • his thoughts on the safety of radioactive substances
  • a list of reasons why the Iran deal was a mistake
  • his thoughts on anything at all to do with the rest of the world
  • a photoshopped picture of Justin Trudeau to make him look ugly
  • diet advice
  • travel advice
  • fashion advice
  • complaints that Google is biased
  • anything about tax — unless it’s his own tax returns
  • a message to Peter Thiel asking him to come back
  • a message asking where the nearest KFC is
  • a message asking where he left his last bucket of KFC
  • a really boring and slightly blurred photo of the inside of Air Force One
  • any message about anything at all he saw on TV last night
  • “Ha-ha you can’t opt out!”
  • “Genius”
  • his thoughts
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FEMA is about to send a ‘Presidential Alert’ to millions of U.S. phones

In a few hours, millions of Americans will get a test emergency “Presidential Alert” message sent to their phone — a simulation in case the president ever needs to reach to entire country in a national emergency.

At 2:18pm ET, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will send a short alert, saying: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” A few minutes later, televisions and radio broadcasts will briefly suspend and a similar message will run.

The test was originally scheduled for mid-September but was delayed until Wednesday after Hurricane Florence hit the east coast.

This will be the first time the government has conducted a nationwide test of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, according to a FEMA advisory.

Emergency warnings used to be confined to television and radio broadcasts, sounding out that familiar terrifying high-pitch tone. But as consumers moved away from televisions and radio to mobile devices that are always with us, the government began working on a system to get emergency alerts in our hands.

Since it was devised in 2006 under the Bush administration, the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) has slowly rolled out across the U.S. to form a new state-of-the-art emergency alert system. Like the legacy system, the WEA is designed to alert Americans to bad weather and missing children at a local level directly to your phone.

But now FEMA wants to test a third alert — the presidential alert — which will send a message to every switched-on phone with cell service across the U.S. at the same time.

This won’t be a text message sent to your phone, experts say. Instead of sending text messages that would flood the networks, the alerts are sent directly over the cellular network.

Although today is a test, any future presidential alert can be sent solely at the discretion of the president and can be issued for any reason. And, unlike other alerts, Americans cannot opt-out of receiving a presidential alert.

Some have expressed concern that the system could be abused for political reasons. Others worry that the system could be hacked.

Tom Crane, an expert in emergency management at Everbridge, a critical communications provider, told TechCrunch that the WEA has “extra safeguards” in place before sending an alert. An authorized user has to enter a complex password that has two elements — a private key and a keystore password — which are unique for each alerting authority.

“It’s not as easy as ‘someone left their computer unattended so i’m going to send a Wireless Emergency Alert’,” he said.

The emergency alert system is far from perfect. Earlier this year, panic spread on Hawaii after an erroneous alert warned residents of a “ballistic missile threat inbound.” The message said, “this is not a drill.” The false warning was amid the height of tensions between the US and North Korea, which at the time was regularly test-firing rockets used for its nuclear missile program.

New Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen brings her cybersecurity focus to domestic defense

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FEMA to send its first ‘Presidential Alert’ in emergency messaging system test

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will this week test a new “presidential alert” system that will allow the president to send a message to every phone in the US.

The alert is the first nationwide test of the presidential alert test, FEMA said in an advisory, which allows the president to address the nation in the event of a national emergency.

The presidential alert to be sent Tuesday will look like this. (Image: FEMA)

Using the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, anyone with cell service should receive the message to their phone.

“THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed,” the message will read, due to be sent out on Thursday at 2:18pm ET.

Minutes later, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will broadcast a similar test message over television, radio, and wireline video services.

Emergency alerts aren’t new and warning systems have long been used — and tested — in the US to alert citizens of local and state incidents, like AMBER alerts for missing children and severe weather events that may result in danger to or loss of life.

But presidential alerts have yet to be tested. Unlike other alerts, citizens will not be allowed to opt out of presidential alerts.

Allowing the president to send nationwide alerts was included in the passing of the WARN Act in 2006 under the Bush administration, creating a state-of-the-art emergency alert system that would replace an aging infrastructure. As alarming as these alerts can (and are designed to) be, the system aims to modernize the alerts system for a population increasingly moving away from televisions and towards mobile technology.

These presidential alerts are solely at the discretion of the president and can be sent for any reason, but experts have shown little concern that the system may be abused.

But the system isn’t perfect. Earlier this year, panic spread on Hawaii after an erroneous alert went out to residents warning of a “ballistic missile thread inbound.” The message said, “this is not a drill.” The false warning was amid the height of tensions between the US and North Korea, which at the time was regularly testing its ballistic missiles as part of its nuclear weapons program.

More than 100 carriers will participate in the test, FEMA said.

Details and solutions emerge for missile threat false alarm in Hawaii

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Senate wants emergency alerts to go out through Netflix, Spotify, etc.

An emergency alert goes out, trying to let you know about incoming bad news — a missile, a tsunami or something else terrifying. Your phone starts shouting… but it’s downstairs. A warning ticker pops on TVs, if you’re watching cable… but you’ve got your eyes glued to Netflix, or Hulu, or some other online streaming service.

Should these services, with their ever-increasing ownership of our screen time, be prepped to broadcast these warnings?

Senators in Hawaii and South Dakota think so, having just introduced a bill (the “Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement,” or READI, act) that would “explore” broadcasting alerts to “online streaming services, such as Netflix and Spotify,” amongst other changes to the Emergency Alert System.

“Hawaii? Wasn’t that the state that had a very public false alarm with its emergency alert system?”

Yep! But it seems that in investigating what went wrong, the state found plenty of long-lived shortcomings in the existing, aging alert system.

Some of the other things the bill touches on:

  • Users on many phones can currently disable federal alerts; they want to get rid of that option
  • Building a better system for reporting false alarms and figuring out what happened
  • Updating the system to better prevent false alarms, and to better retract them when they do happen

The idea of sending emergency alerts to Netflix etc. seems a bit obvious at this point — hell, I was mulling over it right here on TechCrunch back in 2011, and it seemed a bit obvious even back then.

With that said, I still have the same hesitations I had at the time. After the recent false alarms and ensuing panic, it’s clear that any such system needs to be rock solid from a security standpoint — one missed bug or exploit and half the country is freaking out about non-existent incoming missiles when all they wanted to do was watch Orange Is the New Black. If it can be done right, though, it seems like a reasonable idea.