Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulie_a | Hacker News Reader

I hate to sound like a nut but I still feel like their crappy system got hacked and they don't want to admit it

When I was a teenager I realized you could set of the emergency alert system with a dtmf 4 digit code on some 144mhz with a ham radio.

I never did it, but I pretty much expect that to be still possible.

The reason I say this is because yes, it is possible someone got the wrong button, but shit software like this probably has vnc with no auth/useless auth so someone can activate remotely

View on HN

I’m not sure it was hacking, I get the feeling that these events may be intentional to kind of kick the tires on emergency systems and human reactions, perhaps because the powers that be are expecting stuff to go down in the near future. I mean we had Hawaii, then Japan, and in my neck of the woods our nuclear power plant issued a false alarm as well. It just seems really odd, all these things happening in close proximity.

No need for malice when ignorance (or bad design in this case) will suffice.

The timing is very convenient and it's really much more effective than a pre-announced drill.

The government would be stupid not to do this on purpose.

This would make a bit of sense. I think someone on here mentioned how the whole incident really highlighted that the general public has no fucking idea what to do if they receive a message like this.

While it's worryingly similar to crying wolf, I would hope that this does lead to more of the general public (even outside of Hawaii) actually thinking about how they'd handle and react to an imminent threat.

If you wanted to really sound like a nut you could posit that perhaps he was paid or blackmailed to click the wrong button.

4 digit code on 144mhz -- just sending a code alone triggers alert? Wouldn't it need a payload to describe the msg?

Likely multiple codes, each one triggers a specific hardcoded message.

I'm assuming this was from the past ("when i was a teenager") when the messages were much more generic and fixed than they are today.

No it was the same 4 codes, and the same message: "loud'

It definitely is from my teenage years but whenever I visit folks I drive by that tower a block away. You can tell nothing has been upgraded

This was just a siren then? Makes sense.

Smart system, really. Very simple to install/maintain and very simple to have a robust transmitter infrastructure around.

If you just substitute your 4-digit code for a longer, say, 64, digit one with some time-based component, and perhaps shift the required frequency too based on time, you actually end up with a very robust very simple system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity

I disagree. The frequency hopping would make it harder for a signal jammer to prevent a legitimate transmission. If you can't predict the frequency on which the transmission is being listened for, you'd need to jam a broader spectrum, needing much more power to perform the attack.

He likely means emergency sirens - I also had some friends I'd hang out with as a teenager who figured this out as well.

As far as I'm aware this is still the case - but some sites are now encrypted radio. From what I've heard though, that encryption may not be the best implemented in all areas.

It was pretty recently someone set off the civil warning sirens in I believe a city in Texas via this method as well.

I'd like to say this was a one off experience in my "exploring civil infrastructure" days - but it's really just barely scraping the surface. The state of these systems makes you realize how much civilization is held together with tin cans and duct tape, and how much marketing fluff there truly is out there inspiring false confidence.

The payload was the 4 digit code, it was a large tornado warning siren. The msg was "be loud". I lived 300 yards from it, and had a dad with a police scanner. I noticed a pattern after a while... Saturday's they ran some test of the system...4 digits at noon on the radio and a blasting sound would follow

Reply on news.ycombinator.com