If you are at home and you hear loud emergency alarm ringing outside, you would get worried a bit, right? Now think if this happened at midnight and lasted for over 90 minutes, but there is no immediate tornado or other danger that would prompt the Emergency Alert System. Still scary, and it really happened last Friday in Dallas,Texas.It was a big hack, showing how powerful it can be to disrupt the infrastructure of a city.
In total, 156 alarms were activated with emergency officials finally able to shut the system down after it ran for over 90 minutes until around 1:20 AM local time after It caused a lot of stress with no real danger prompting the system to turn on. This video below shows the uneasy feeling people had in Dallas as all of this was going on, though it does not seem like it was panic in the streets.
Arstechnica.com reported more details on the hack with evidence towards no computer intrusion but rather an illegal pirate radio segment that set it all off. There is still no clear idea who is responsible, but there is likely a lot of people taking credit it for online. Dallas law enforcement officials believe the hack came from the local area.