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If I were going to erode public trust in emergency broadcast systems in order to increase the amount of damage I would do by launching an actual missile, this is how I would do it. A series of false alarms. 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…
These systems are being revisited for the first time in a generation. Honest mistake is far more likely.
[0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/01/14/us/14xp-hawaii-su...
[1]https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/5785...
[2]http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-12-03/after-25-years...
[3]https://isogg.org/wiki/How_long_is_a_generation%3F_Science_p...
I’m in Hawaii and received it this morning. First thought: there is probably no shelter close by anyway, and if they would send a missile they would probably target Honolulu (I’m in Kauai).
So it took 38 minutes to send out a new message informing this was a false alert. How is that possible if this was simply a human error during a "shift change"? You'd think the people who "pressed the wrong button" would be able to press the same button again?
> You'd think the people who "pressed the wrong button" would be able to press the same button again? Absolutely not. Once you say “fire” you need official confirmation to say “no fire”. That means certification from the military. The official needed being in a meeting or tending to something of greater importance could easily introduce delays. In any case, I presume the system’s designers didn’t build in an “oops, f…
I'm struggling to think what meeting or item would have an importance higher than "incoming ballistic nuclear missiles".
Hopefully instead of seeking to cast blame or personnel firings, etc., folks will learn what it is they lack in emergency response.
Ok, I hope that the people who got scared shitless by this emergency start doing something against nuclear weapons. It's ludicrous: We can all die any day and ICAN, the people who helped to pass the ban on nuclear weapons and got Nobel prize for it are raising money at a rate of $50 a day.
An interesting Reddit comment described a chaotic traffic situation for 20 minutes (people running lights, wrong-side-of-the-road driving, extreme speed, etc.). Human nature in these moments is very “Tragedy of the Commons” apparently.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
These systems are being revisited for the first time in a generation. Honest mistake is far more likely.
Looking at the screenshot of the alert [0], it appears to be using the alert system adopted in 2006 in response to the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act[1]. How is this system for a missile attack different, and in what way is it being revisited for the first time in a generation? Text messages are just now 1 generation old (SMS first implemented 1992[2]; generation is about 25.5 years[3].)And of course…
Clearly there is a whole bunch of new attention being paid towards this.
And rightfully so given the provocations from NK and the general decline in maintenance/quality of the US nuclear and ICBM weapon systems.
Hackers?
