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Emergency Alerts Via Text Messaging
The New York Times is reporting that a plan has been approved by Federal regulators to use text messaging to distribute emergency alerts. The system is scheduled to go online by 2010, and will include three different types of alerts: national alerts (such as terrorist attacks), imminent threats (such as natural disasters), and Amber alerts. From the Times:
"The plan stems from the Warning Alert and Response Network Act, a 2006 federal law that requires upgrades to the emergency alert system. The act requires the Federal Communications Commission to develop ways to alert the public about emergencies. 'The ability to deliver accurate and timely warnings and alerts through cellphones and other mobile services is an important next step in our efforts to help ensure that the American public has the information they need to take action to protect themselves and their families prior to, and during, disasters and other emergencies,' the commission chairman, Kevin J. Martin, said after the plan was approved."
I get text alerts from my cell network letting me know about remaining talk time etc. Recently they have started embedding targetted ads in them. Perhaps that'll happen with this system too?
"National Alert:
An attack is being carried out in Washington. The White House has been bombed.
This week only, half price survival gear at Mitchell's Disposals. Compasses, water bottles, camp stoves and outdoor gear as well as army surplus equipment. Get it while it's hot!"
I hate printers.
SUM1 SET US UP DA BOMB
What about opting-out of such service? The spooks already have television and radio under cover. Why should you want it in your pocket?
This means that the messaging infrastructures are to be really highly available under all circumstances.
Which seems no to be the case at least for GSM/3G cellular networks where these infrastructures are very complex.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
It's only natural mobile networks will become flooded during an emergency that this will prove useless.
Im currently in engineering at the U of C, and this semester they actually implemented this to warn students of situations (anything from fires to the worst case of shootings). This method does make a bit of sense, as traditional ways of warning such as emails or phone calls or TV can take a amount of time to be noticed while Most people notice a text message immediately.
I'd be curious to see what sort of authentication the networks are pushing for this sort of broadcast message - will third parties be able to forge the sender phone number/name?
I frequently receive spam on my mobile by SMS and "service messages" (SMS with integrated hyperlinks) which purport to be from a textual name rather than a sender telephone number.
Given the propensity for telco networks to be less than secure with regards to CNI information, I'd hope that tighter restrictions on sender CNI in SMS is adopted if this plan goes ahead - with the level of sheeple out there, a targeted social engineering attack against a public event could cause chaos. Take, for example, the WVU emergency alert system mentioned in another comment - if someone were to forge a message about a school shooting to a decent number of students, I could quite easily see the day's classes being disrupted. Extrapolate that to a national warning system.. and there's a lot to be done before I'd trust a SMS coming in from "Federal Warning System" regarding a serious incident.
will the cell phone companies make it 100% free and make it work even when you have texting turned off as I was getting a lot of spam that I was paying $0.10+ a text on my phone.
- They couldn't believe that someone would not want text messages.
- They couldn't believe that those messages were spam. After all, how could someone get my phone number? (they started coming on day one) I must have wanted those messages!
- They couldn't believe that their blacklist tool wasn't working. Every originating number or address I put in kept on receiving those messages.
The third attempt stopped the messages, but only downstream of the message counter, so I was no longer receiving the messages, but they charged me for them anyway. I finally had to use social engineering to get Sprint's secret network support number from them and explain it to a Real Tech what was going on, and he fixed it.Face it, they're going to try to stop you from taking away their revenue.
Of course I left Sprint.
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
Our new head honcho, Mayor Nutter... yes, that it is real name... just implemented this on the 5th.
411911 indeed. Other than wondering just what the actual volume will be - will i get a (for me, charged) text every time there's a "severe weather alert" i.e. RAIN, frex - do i really wanna give City Hall my cell number? Or is the feeling of extra exposure just an illusion..?That which does not kill us makes us... st
I get txt alerts from ESPN/CBS and others on sports scores. The great thing is when I get an alert on Thursday about a football game played on Sunday.
I can envision a world where people are getting Katrina warnings 3 days after the storm hits.
The system is way too ad-hoc and fragile to support mission critical alerts of upcoming disasters.
Just recently I attended an invitation only Verizon seminar where they did indeed mention this exact system. Couple of notes for you with questions:
1) Security - It isn't the name that is important, the carriers will authenticate the message via IP address.
2) When there is an alert, the message will be sent out by georgraphic region. No matter the carrier or type of device in the area, if the device is able to receive text messages it will receive the alert.
3) This type of message won't necessarily lag the system as the government will be on the white list of all carriers. This will allow them to bypass the text message spam filters and go directly to the pipe.
So I think knowing what's going on is important, but is it logical to tell everyone at exactly the same time?
Sounds pretty similar to something already in place... http://www.emergencyemail.org/
FTA: "The service could be in place by 2010."
Meanwhile, there's http://emergencyeamil.org/, which is opt-in. It works pretty well, though they've been slow to update their warning zones when the government (NWS, actually) shifts the boundaries around. They're a public-private partnership, and a significant percentage of states and counties in the U.S. are already signed up.
During peak hours, sometimes I've had emergency warning text messages delayed by over 10 minutes. If the cellular infrastructure is tweaked for the new system, it'll be a good thing: emergency messages can be broadcast to everyone at once, and with a high priority.
I first heard this an NPR last week as having an opt-in/opt-out feature. How will the feds know who gets the messages? Presuming this only send text messages to citizens (at first)won't they need to have a database of all the IDs?
Or, maybe my tinfoil hat is on too tight.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
The first would be a national alert from the president, probably involving a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The second would involve âoeimminent threatsâ that could include natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes or university shootings.
The third would be reserved for child abductions, so-called Amber alerts. Did anyone else find it a bit odd that "university shootings" are classified under "natural disasters"?
I find this to be a little bit shocking, as I would consider such a thing to be closer in nature to a terrorist attack than a tornado. In fact, in almost all cases (like Virginia Tech) I think that "terrorist attack" would be a perfectly fine classification.
I think the problem here is that the term "terrorists" has become synonymous with "crazy Arabs".
I am from cancun mexico, and we do get some hurricanes every now and then, I remember receiving text messages from the government alerting me as to the warning level color at the moment whenever a hurricane came close. It is a pre set code, so most people could figure out if they had to start checking their food and water supplies or start boarding their windows. These messages were simple enough and very informative, I believe it could work in other places or for some other natural disasters.
but if I am going to be in a location where they suspect terrorist activity, I'd like to know so I can get the *&^% out!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
The Ohio State University does this now on a smaller scale. It's new this year, but they've tested it a couple times and it's entertaining when everyone's phone goes off in a short period of time. It txt's and/or calls(you can choose) everyone who has signed up, emails everyone, and calls all dorm phones.
Thanks, you owe me a new keyboard
I hope they include the GPS coordinates. There is nothing worse then getting a message which a computer cannot parse. Somthing like GeoRSS would be good.
For Amber alerts, anyway, there's http://wirelessamberalerts.org/. If you're on Verizon you can text 'AMBER your zip code' to 26237.
I smell bacon.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
This system could use cell broadcast SMS.
With regular SMS, you would send a "subscribe" SMS, and then you are added to some huge list of numbers to send the message to.. if there's 1000 on the list, the list is send through the network 1000 times.
With broadcast SMS, you would send a "subscribe" SMS. The network sends the phone an over-the-air update to subscribe it to a certain broadcast number (they run up to "channel" 65535). Then the network will just send a broadcast message for channel foo -- the message has a sequence number so the same message can be retransmited. Instead of a network trying to send 1000s of copies of a message in addition to the other texting that is already happening, the message can be broadcast like once a second or once every 30 seconds or whatever, and the phone will pick it up as soon as it's turned on/in range.