Dallas officials blame computer hacking for setting off emergency sirens throughout the city early Saturday, April 8, 2017, when all 156 of the city’s sirens were activated more than a dozen times.
It’s a “very concerning” issue that Dallas has never faced. Officials don’t know who was responsible for the hacking, but Vaz said “with a good deal of confidence that this was someone outside our system” and in the Dallas area.
The city has figured out how the emergency system was compromised and is working to prevent it from happening again.
Identifying who sounded the sirens will be like “finding a needle in a haystack,” but authorities will “find and prosecute whomever is responsible.”
This is yet another serious example of the need for everybody to upgrade and better safeguard their city’s technology infrastructure. Making the necessary improvements is imperative for the safety of our citizens.
Authorities initially described the problem as a system malfunction when the sirens started blaring shortly before midnight Friday. About 12:30 a.m. that Dallas Fire-Rescue crews were working to fix the problem. But it took until about 1:20 a.m. to silence them for good because the emergency system had to be deactivated.
The system remained shut down Saturday while crews safeguarded it from another hack. The city said the system should be restored Sunday or Monday — in time for thunderstorms that are expected to begin rolling through the area early next week.
If this is indeed hacking, it’s extremely concerning… And you can put me down as terrified.
