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Days After Hawaii's False Missile Alarm, a New One in Japan (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Japan's public broadcaster on Tuesday accidentally sent news alerts that North Korea had launched a missile and that citizens should take shelter -- just days after the government of Hawaii had sent a similar warning to its citizens. The broadcaster, NHK, corrected itself five minutes later and apologized for the error on its evening news (Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source). The initial texts cited J-Alert, a system used by the government to issue warnings to its citizens about missiles, tsunamis and other natural disasters. But NHK later said that the system was not to blame for the false alarm. Makoto Sasaki, a spokesman for NHK, apologized, saying that "staff had mistakenly operated the equipment to deliver news alerts over the internet."
I believe these false alerts are deliberate, and are being used to see what happens when people think there's an attack. These false alerts also act to discredit the real alerts, if God forbid one ever comes. The whole thing is deeply disconcerting, and I hope a patriotic leaker comes forward with the real story to Wikileaks.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Let me guess, the conversation went as follows.
Boss - Show me our system can't make the same mistake what the Hawaii one did.
Operator - It can't boss, look. First you click here, then here and then her.. oh shit, oh shit, shit.
Boss - <running in circles> Make it stop, make it stop.
Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
password on sticky note Warningpoint2
Twice is coincidence...
Watch this spot.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Especially if, as apparently in Hawaii, there are no shelters designed to resist thermonuclear attack.
After all, it's not as if they were real Americans.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
A 10 kiloton warhead in the centre of any city would cause at least 45,000 immediate deaths and about 250,000 injuries. That's a warhead smaller than either of the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs.
With a standard 300 kiloton warhead you would have over 600,000 immediate deaths and over 2 million injuries.
How much good is it going to do to "take warnings seriously"?
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
I've long wondered what would happen if a presidential alert was accidentally sent. Most all newer mobile phones intended for use in the U.S. will respond to such alerts. Presidential alerts can't be turned off on non-rooted phones. I could easily envision someone doing this as a jab to the Trump administration.
Hopefully, national presidential alerts are better safeguarded than many state and local based alerts. Incompetence abounds. Even after the event. According to some articles I've read, the state of Hawaii released a screenshot of their emergency alert interface a couple of days ago, but now says that image was a fake one. Then they release another so-called screenshot, but it's not of the actual screen. It's a mock-up of what the actual screen supposedly looks like. Sure. Wager the first screenshot is the real one.
What is the Hawaii state government hiding? Likely, it was more than just operator error. The software GUI is likely as terrible as many imagine; lack of adequate procedures and safeguards to ensure only real alerts are sent. Or maybe that's just all a cover for a test to see how the population would respond to a real alert. Strange an alleged "test" message would include the phrase "THIS IS NOT A DRILL." Doesn't make sense. Maybe there's nothing to it, but seems suspect.
to be able to pass any laws that you want....
If Japan and Hawaii's missile alarm systems had been compromised by hacker savvy North Koreans, the respective governments wouldn't tell us. That would cause widespread panic. Telling the public it was 'human error' is their only option. Just sayin'.
Makoto Sasaki, a spokesman for NHK, apologized, saying that "staff had mistakenly operated the equipment to deliver news alerts over the internet." NHK is now looking for new staff to replace the old one that commited seppuku.
#DeleteFacebook
Nuclear monsters inbound, take shelter!
A 10 kiloton warhead in the centre of any city would cause at least 45,000 immediate deaths and about 250,000 injuries.
Huh? You're making an identical estimate for NYC & Muleshoe, TX? The average population for a US city isn't anywhaere near 250,000. Maybe you're going off a list of likely targets? Where in the world are these numbers coming from?
How much good is it going to do to "take warnings seriously"?
Depends. Your odds are better in a bomb shelter than operating a hot dog cart when a bomb hits, but whether it actually does you any good depends on a lot of things. If you're in Seoul and NK starts firing conventional artillery at you, taking the warning seriously could save your life.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Taking shelter can make a big difference. We can learn a lot from what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People in the open were much more likely to be killed. But shelter helped a lot more in Nagasaki, where most buildings were stone, rather than in Hiroshima, where most were wood. Nagasaki was hit by a bigger bomb (20kT vs 15kT) but fewer people died because there was no firestorm like Hiroshima experienced.
Anyway, I think we are way past the point where anyone is going to take these stupid "alerts" seriously. I heard that less than 5% of Hawaiians actually took shelter, and every false alarm is going to diminish that further.
The H3 tunnel is technically designed a shelter, although there are obviously no supplies and it is likely more dangerous to get there than just stay put and work on your tan.
There are nuclear fallout shelters in Hawaii. You can easily find them as you walk around the downtown area. I lived on O'ahu for several years, and I admit I'm not aware of any shelters elsewhere on the island. But I do know that the island is home to 8 military bases, so I'm sure there are plenty of other shelters I'm not aware of.
Yes, a government worker made a mistake. However the larger issue here was the bad user interface design and the lack of programmatic dual authorization controls.
On the UI side, the interface simply consisted of a bunch of hyperlinks in no particular order with test messages and real messages interspersed. Upon clicking a link, the page just asked if you were sure you wanted to send a message but didn't show what the message actually was. It allowed one operator to make all the decisions with no oversight.
On the process side, the agency could have implemented a requirement to document two people being present and agreeing to send out a particular message. The company I work at does that all the time. A better solution would be to have dual authorization built right into the UI. One operator could select and confirm a message after seeing a draft of what would be sent. Then it could go into a queue for approval by a second operator who could approve it to actually be sent. If both operators are present, this would delay the message by only a few seconds.
Give me one good reason why NK would want to do that without being attacked first by the USA and I won't consider you hysterical.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Only kind of alert I think may be useful are one of those radios that respond when NOAA NWS sends out a tornado warning. Other than that, I think last time aerial bombardment alerts were useful was in WWII, or maybe first Gulf War of incoming Scud missiles. Airstrikes these days are first realized at bombstrikes, an incoming missile with nuclear bomb... not sure what to do about that.
I remember signing up for county alerts only to get late at night (and wow I didn't know cellphone can be that loud) a missing child alert in a area that is miles from where I live. On the landline a lengthy "voicemail" for a BOL of someone again miles from where I live. I think much of these should use local radio and TV stations (and they have websites as well) which get the word out for missing people. Of course police have BOLs for stolen cars (not sure how many are actually spotted), probably most useful are incidents that just occurred. And then there are reckless driver alerts, you know the stereotypical black BMW weaving in and out of traffic, cutting people off, rude hand gestures.
I'm thinking about that incident when millions of NYC residents were woken at 2 am for a stolen car alert.
mfwright@batnet.com
What percentage of Hawaiians actually knew about the alert between the time it was sent and the time an announcement of the error was made?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Think of the contractor over time to ensure it was not NK once political leaders can be told it might be NK cyber.
The testing of every gov network.
Interviewing all cleared mil and gov staff.
Creating a profile of all staff to see who might be swayed by NK?
Its win win win for contractors once a person in gov accepts the NK cyber part.
A lot of well politically well connected mil and gov contractors would really like a new reason to sell their services to any gov, mil. NK is a great way to start that conversation and offer the new products and services to understand what NK did.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
What percentage of Hawaiians actually knew about the alert between the time it was sent and the time an announcement of the error was made?
Everyone with an 808 area code cellphone that was turned on. Likely 90% of the adult population of Hawaii.
Nothing to do with why NK would send a nuclear bomb loaded rocket to USA, Japan or SK.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Contractors don't need a why when selling their cyber products to a gov, mil.
The "what if" NK was doing cyber is the message to push a sale to the gov/mil with.
Sell and rent the software, hardware, experts, get overtime and its all good again.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
This was not a "false missile alarm" or any kind of fault in J-Alert system. This was news organization (NHK) mistakenly publishing a pre-written news piece, kinda like when premature obituaries occur. That is not to say there hasn't been a mistake in J-Alert testing producing a false missile alarm. In fact it has happened several times already:
4/19/2017 in Osaki, Miyagi. False missile warning broadcasted over loud speakers while testing of J-Alert system. Correction issued after 6 minutes.
9/8/2017 in Yokkaichi, Mie. False missile warning sent over radio while testing of J-Alert system. Correction issued after 10 minutes.
9/14/2017 in Minamisoma, Fukushima. False missile warning distributed over email while testing of J-Alert system. Correction issued after 7 minutes.
But this time it was not a mistake in J-Alert system, so all the conspiracy theorist can shove it.
That's a reasonable estimate on the percentage that received the message... but not necessarily what percentage actually happened to see the message before the retraction notice was made.
My phone is on all the time too, but unless I'm actually doing something with my phone at the time that it arrives, I often I don't see text messages for 20 to 30 minutes or sometimes even longer.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Are you saying: if they were behind this (and had hacked the missile alert systems), then they wouldnt advertise it (by hacking the missile alert systems)? Seems like a contradiction.
First of all, let me say I approve of the feculence you reprobates manage to dreg up. If I could, you would have my vote, as my points are due to expire this evening. But /. won't let me give credit where I've gone before. And let me confess I've had to drastically cut this response down, eliminating references to Steve Bannon and the s*hole (house?) that sits on Pennsylvania Avenue. Too much fun.
I thought I said if North Korea did the hacks, it was a message meant for the president and the prime minister of Japan, not the general public. The Hoi polloi were put in a panic as part of the warning. I'm speculating wildly, of course, but North Korea does have some of the best hackers on the planet. Don't take my word for it, Google 'em.
North Korea didn't make any public announcements about owning the incident. They never do. And our side puts out news stories blaming 'user error', first in Hawaii, then Japan. One after another. What a coincidence! Even though a 'user error' like this hasn't happened for decades, if ever.
If the hacking of the missile alert systems were an advertisement meant for us plebeians, it would have some of us asking, 'what else have they gotten into?'
The attacks are virtual, the people calculated to be dead will "disappear" soon.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.