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Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

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Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of me suspects that there might be something in this related to current events. If I were to spitball ideas about motives and modus operandi, it feels like the kind of thing a state actor would tamper with, and in terms of style I'd gravitate toward looking in North Korea's direction, since it feels like their style. Why do it? Raising noise with false alarms, desensitizes the intended signal of an alarm, ruinin…

I can almost guarantee this was just a kid messing around. There's no real motive for anyone else.

The nation state actor who cried "BWOOOOOOOOOO"? That is, if you turn on the sirens often enough, maybe they'll be ignored in an emergency.

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of me suspects that there might be something in this related to current events. If I were to spitball ideas about motives and modus operandi, it feels like the kind of thing a state actor would tamper with, and in terms of style I'd gravitate toward looking in North Korea's direction, since it feels like their style. Why do it? Raising noise with false alarms, desensitizes the intended signal of an alarm, ruinin…

I can almost guarantee this was just a kid messing around. There's no real motive for anyone else.

While I agree this is the most obvious suspect, the crippling effect it had on emergency services like 911 probably got the attention of more nefarious players.

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#35
post #7

I was in Dallas when this happened. I can attest to the eeriness of sirens going off all over town with no idea what they mean. In Texas we're accustomed to tornado sirens, but when the skies are clear and they are going off, makes you wonder what might be happening - especially when it lasts for over an hour. But what really struck me was how much we expect instant information these days. Took over 30 minutes to fig…

Tbh it might be best to not have protocols for ignoring sirens.

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#36
post #7

I was in Dallas when this happened. I can attest to the eeriness of sirens going off all over town with no idea what they mean. In Texas we're accustomed to tornado sirens, but when the skies are clear and they are going off, makes you wonder what might be happening - especially when it lasts for over an hour. But what really struck me was how much we expect instant information these days. Took over 30 minutes to fig…

Tbh it might be best to not have protocols for ignoring sirens.

I think it's less "ignoring sirens" and more "communicating about emergency alerts". Even if the siren legitimately went off during clear skies, people would be confused and you'd want a way to communicate why the sirens are going off. In most places around the US, they use the Emergency Alert System for that, pushing the message to TVs, radios, and cell phones. Already the EAS is set up with a protocol to let you know it's safe to ignore this alert, they test the alerts and say "this is only a test". And they already set off sirens that they expect you to ignore, in my area it's every Friday at noon.

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the small stations who don't have a person decided when to play the alerts are typically listening to two larger stations, and it varies which ones they are listening to. So yes, a malicious actor could conceivably do this, but he/she would have to be close enough the antennas and have a transmitter powerful enough to broadcast over the assigned signals. As others have noted, larger stations generally always ha…

> larger stations generally always have at least one person present who can verify alerts before rebroadcasting them. New rules recently in effect, presidential alert messages (PAM) are to be rebroadcast by station equipment immediately with minimal delay and without requiring operator intervention.

Oh, great. Can't wait for them to hack that one...

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#38
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can almost guarantee this was just a kid messing around. There's no real motive for anyone else.

The nation state actor who cried "BWOOOOOOOOOO"? That is, if you turn on the sirens often enough, maybe they'll be ignored in an emergency.

That might be more plausible when it starts happening repeatedly. It's hard to compare it to the boy who cried wolf when we only have a single occurrence.

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of me suspects that there might be something in this related to current events. If I were to spitball ideas about motives and modus operandi, it feels like the kind of thing a state actor would tamper with, and in terms of style I'd gravitate toward looking in North Korea's direction, since it feels like their style. Why do it? Raising noise with false alarms, desensitizes the intended signal of an alarm, ruinin…

The above comment is a ghostly gray right now. Why? cyanotic is merely stating a conjecture out loud. There's nothing rude in the comment, it's not attacking your favorite company/paradigm/X and he even concedes to the "default"/"correct" opinion at the end. Why downvote that? Are we Reddit now?

Honestly, more than 50% of the downvoted comments I see on HN do not deserve to be downvoted. Less than half of them are rule-breaking, rude, useless, etc.

Frankly, downvoting here has become just as bad as on Reddit: it happens because people don't like the comment for any reason, including, e.g. that what they had for lunch is giving them indigestion at the moment they lay eyes on it (but mostly it's because they simply disagree, which is shameful).

This particular comment is full of speculation, but it's not unreasonable speculation, and the linked article gives no details to contradict it. I wish we could have an interesting discussion about what might be, rather than mindlessly censor it by downvoting so that we can only have approved conversations.

This just reinforces my conclusion that the only kind of voting should be upvoting. If a comment breaks a rule, flag it, otherwise leave it alone, and concentrate on upvoting good comments. This shaming-by-graying is becoming very tiresome. It's ridiculous that it only takes a few random downvoters to turn a comment gray, because it's not an indication of what the community as a whole thinks, only those who happened to downvote it (after which the likelihood of it being upvoted by people who do like it diminishes, because it being downvoted decreases the likelihood of anyone seeing it).

TLDR: Voting on HN is badly broken. It only takes a few selfish, childish people to kill comments and prevent the community from even having a chance to correct the downvotes.

Re: Hackers set off Dallas’ 156 emergency sirens over a dozen times

#40
post #7

I was in Dallas when this happened. I can attest to the eeriness of sirens going off all over town with no idea what they mean. In Texas we're accustomed to tornado sirens, but when the skies are clear and they are going off, makes you wonder what might be happening - especially when it lasts for over an hour. But what really struck me was how much we expect instant information these days. Took over 30 minutes to fig…

Tbh it might be best to not have protocols for ignoring sirens.

I had the same thought. IF hackers can get into the sirens themselves, what would stop someone from telling people to ignore sirens in an actual emergency.
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