Hawaii Scare

These automated alert systems work too well:

Wife's sister and BIL are stationed out there.   Come to find out the message was fake.     

But, by that time everyone was in bunkers.  We plan on visiting in a month,  should make travel slightly more interesting.

Yeah, "exciting times".

I was just out there, didn't receive any alerts but it was mentioned in the airport that they were conducting drills of that nature.

crazy. 

Redacted. I can hear the concrete truck coming.

If anyone needs me I’ll be under my desk.

Faked by whom?

I'm a kid of the 80s. It's engrained in me that this is completely normal.

Quoting from FB, from a guy I went to college with 
 

"I spent a decade in government infosec. Straight-up: Hawaii's emergency alert system was hacked. They're saying it was "human error" because you DO NOT admit to a hack like this.

I know more about these systems than the average bear. It's NOT as simple as, "Someone pushed the wrong button." There are safeguards and release protocols... unless Hawaii uses something home grown, which would violate about a dozen federal regulations. (Hint: they don't.)"

Years ago I heard some of the details of how the radio EBS worked, and I thought at the time that it would be pretty simple to hack with a little knowledge. I hope they've made it a little more secure since then.

Wally said:

If anyone needs me I’ll be under my desk.

I've always found being under my bosses desk had more positive effects on my career.  Missile threat or not.

Amazed that human error or hacking, pundits are blaming Trump. (expected?)

"“We made a mistake,” said Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi. He also went on to say that he was in charge so it was his fault and responsibility."

I can't recall the last time I heard a public official say those words. I don't care if there's more to it than a simple error it's just so refreshing to hear someone in authority accept responsibility.

Mr. Miyagi ? really?

Alarm on. Alarm off.

Hungary Bill said:

Wally said:

If anyone needs me I’ll be under my desk.

I've always found being under my bosses desk had more positive effects on my career.  Missile threat or not.

Never again.  The last time didn't help, it left a bad taste in my mouth, 

Hungary Bill said:

Wally said:

If anyone needs me I’ll be under my desk.

I've always found being under my bosses desk had more positive effects on my career.  Missile threat or not.

That's doubly alarming coming from a guy named "Hungry Bill". 

I question the "someone simply pushed the wrong button during a drill" excuse. The system has to be a bit more complex than that, but perhaps it makes sense seeing they were conducting a drill at the time. The thing that is really baffling, is that they didn't send out the correction/cancellation message within a minute of the warning. 40 minutes later is absurd. I'm glad I wasn't hiding in a bunker or just sitting around waiting for the world to end for 40+ minutes for nothing.

In reply to T.J. :

That brings up an interesting point - I wonder how many babies in Hawaii will be born on/around October 13th?

I dunno, Pete, but you might want to check October 21st plus maybe 2-3 days for the "late bloomers," so to speak.

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to T.J. :

That brings up an interesting point - I wonder how many babies in Hawaii will be born on/around October 13th?

Hey, my birthday!  i might actually follow up on that one

and then the moment hits, where I realize I now know what my parents were doing 36 years ago today...  Thanks for that...

Turns out the options to conduct a system test and the actual real-life warning were right next to each other on a dropdown menu:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/15/hawaiian_missile_warning/

I figured you'd at least have to uncover a switch that would turn on red warning lights to activate the real thing.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I don’t see why this is surprising.  Governments constantly have to try and save money where they can so there’s a good chance this was just tacked on to an existing Amber Alert/Silver Alert system when someone decided it was needed rather than invest in an entire different program.