Hacker Sets Off All 156 Emergency Alert Sirens in Dallas

Dallas residents may have had a hard time sleeping Friday night after a hacker set off all 156 of the city's sirens for roughly an hour and a half. The hacker is still unnamed and at large.

The hacker tricked the system to send repeat signals activating each siren 60 times during the night, Vaz said. The sirens started sounding at 11:42 p.m. Friday and continued until 1:17 a.m. Saturday.

Must have been pretty annoying, and it also had the effect of overwhelming the city's 911 call centers because of residents calling to report and inquire about the nonexistent emergency. The wait times for a 911 call went from a normal 10 seconds, to over 6 minutes.

USA Today article

a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

I think cities are going to learn they need to have people to address hacking 24 /7 . In fact businesses as well they need to start thinking about having IT available anytime.

a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

Lol, cracking up. Back in the day we used to make prank phone calls to people, mostly harmless, full of snickering. Toilet papering houses, egging cars, putting M80s in halloween pumpkins. Hi school had a seniors prank day...

All felonies now. sheesh, can't have any fun anymore.

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

I think cities are going to learn they need to have people to address hacking 24 /7 . In fact businesses as well they need to start thinking about having IT available anytime.

As we move closer towards AI taking over a large portion of jobs, they're going to have to create ways which will make the AI hack proof which will be probably a more daunting task than creating the AI in the first place

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

I think cities are going to learn they need to have people to address hacking 24 /7 . In fact businesses as well they need to start thinking about having IT available anytime.

Won't matter, someone will always figure out where they write down the password.

The film War Games exemplified that.

a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

Is there any connection to the release of the NSA hacker tools that were released a few days ago or is it really that "easy" to hack a city grid? This could have been a testrun and next thing they change traffic lights to cause massive mayhem. Hmm this is not good.

What a headache that must have been, lets hope no one died as a result of waiting for 911 for a real emergency

-Alee

Perhaps administering and managing servers will be brought back to skilled folks in the US. And out of the untrained hands of India,

originally posted by: Discotech

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

I think cities are going to learn they need to have people to address hacking 24 /7 . In fact businesses as well they need to start thinking about having IT available anytime.

As we move closer towards AI taking over a large portion of jobs, they're going to have to create ways which will make the AI hack proof which will be probably a more daunting task than creating the AI in the first place

Hackproof, thats a joke. As long as there a screen with a keyboard, there is going to be someone trying to get access.

From the film "Heat"

a reply to: Quantumgamer1776
And they should charge him!!!

What if a real tornado hit last night?

Due to the sirens going off, 911 had a wait time of at least 6 minutes last night. What if you needed an ambulance? A cop? A fireman?

Someone thought they were being cute but instead they put the entire town of Dallas in harms way. Punk should be charged with everything they can throw at them!

a reply to: Perfectenemy
One time I saw someone hack the local traffic cam system from a lap top. He could select any camera at any intersection. I said how'd you do that? He shut his laptop and left...

originally posted by: Quantumgamer1776
it also had the effect of overwhelming the city's 911 call centers because of residents calling to report and inquire about the nonexistent emergency. The wait times for a 911 call went from a normal 10 seconds, to over 6 minutes.

USA Today article

Why are people so dumb?

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

Lol, cracking up. Back in the day we used to make prank phone calls to people, mostly harmless, full of snickering. Toilet papering houses, egging cars, putting M80s in halloween pumpkins. Hi school had a seniors prank day...

All felonies now. sheesh, can't have any fun anymore.

That wasn't just a prank. This endangered many lifes because this bs interfered with the response time of law enforcement and probably first responders.

probably some Putin's troll

originally posted by: Perfectenemy

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

Lol, cracking up. Back in the day we used to make prank phone calls to people, mostly harmless, full of snickering. Toilet papering houses, egging cars, putting M80s in halloween pumpkins. Hi school had a seniors prank day...

All felonies now. sheesh, can't have any fun anymore.

That wasn't just a prank. This endangered many lives because this bs interfered with the response time of law enforcement and probably first responders.

My whole peace of mind was damaged in my youth by the monthly testing of doomsday sirens. The gubment did this to make everyone afraid, screw them, payback is a b____.

a reply to: intrptr

You'd be surprised how easy things like that can be. Depends on the city with your example of course. How about building or home security/nanny cams?

There are websites out there providing access to literally hundreds of thousands if not more of those cameras to joe nobody just by search. Hackers can take it even further. One can even control the cameras, pan them up or down and left to right.

That being said, i do not think this was some prankster. Some group is at work testing their network attack capabilities for a future who knows what imo.

Who remembers the new jersey train incident last year accompanied with a nice little Dr. Suess line scrolling on the bottom of the screen from the national alert system?

This group is even bragging about what they can do at this point. And there seems to be quite a focus on these alert systems..

a reply to: lightedhype

That being said, i do not think this was some prankster. Some group is at work testing their network attack capabilities for a future who knows what imo.

I disagree, they would have wanted to keep their hack secret, not 'blaze sirens' for an hour and half in the middle of the night.

Authorities will find the breach and plug it now.

Its like this self defeating cycle. Terrorists board and hijack planes flying them into city buildings on 911. So the gubment probably has installed secret control programs to stop that from the ground. Now people aren't allowed their devices in the cabins of incoming international flights, but its only a matter of time before someone hacks the safeguard system and crashes a plane with it.

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

I think cities are going to learn they need to have people to address hacking 24 /7 . In fact businesses as well they need to start thinking about having IT available anytime.

I have to ask, how stupid are city controllers that they put emergency infrastructure onto the internet? Actually, is government that stupid as well? Both rhetorical questions of course, because we know they are that stupid. Nothing is unhackable lol, except something not attached to the internet and secured properly for local use. It just seems like government does retarded things so they have an excuse to faux justify their existence.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

This is an important hack and it is executed the right way - make the city aware that is vulnerable in a very public way with endangering anyone.


The REAL danger here is if the system got hacked to make the alert system NOT go off when they ought to. Imagine coordinating such a hack with a physical attack that then could not be warned about!

Good guy hacker.

I'm willing to bet that somewhere in the metroplex a major crime has yet to be discovered.
Stones, coins, art or maybe a dope dealer's stash is empty.

It will be interesting to see the burglary reports by the end of the day as well as insurance claims.

I remember a crack dealer called in a 100k cash theft one time, Hehe.

Buck