A 38 Minute 'Mistake': Hawaii sends incoming ballistic missile alert

[Jan2017]

. . . I further cannot imagine that such messages would not show up at DoD and possibly the White House itself.

It will be very interesting to see how Trump responds to this, materially speaking.

Commander-in-Chief does have to be informed before any defensive use of a nuclear response -
as I understand he would have 3 minutes, once verified, to make a decision with a code he carries.
Possible this is a malicious provocation, and when WH would have been informed will be of interest - someone somewhere tested Trump/WH response (?)


"A new procedure was instituted Saturday requiring two people to sign off before any such cellphone alert is sent."

Hawaii false missile alert: FCC to open probe into mistaken warning
Since 2012, the Wireless Emergency Alerts system has been used more than 33,000 times to warn people across the country of severe weather, evacuation orders, shelter-in place alerts and Amber Alerts, the FCC said in Tuesday's report.

[enhanced_deficit]

If this was done by North Korean or foreign hackers, what would be US response?





Hawaii Democrat: false missile alarm shows Trump failure on North Korea
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard says state takes blame for panic but claims it revealed flaws in White House approach to nuclear-armed Pyongyang

The false alarm about a ballistic missile strike that terrified Hawaiians on Saturday showed Donald Trump’s policy on North Korea is wrong, a Democratic US representative from the state said on Sunday.

“What makes me angry,” Tulsi Gabbard told CNN’s State of the Union, “is that yes this false alarm went out and we have to fix that in Hawaii but really we’ve got to get to the underlying issue here, of why are the people of Hawaii and the US facing a nuclear threat coming from North Korea?
“And what is this president doing, urgently, to eliminate that threat?”
Trump was on the golf course in Florida when the alert went out on Saturday morning, Hawaiian time. The alert text read: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
“It was definitely kind of a panic zone,” Ashley Trask, 39 and from Kauai, told the Guardian. “Everyone knows you have about 15 minutes until detonation and no one knows where it will land.”

Family members “called us and they were crying because they realized they wouldn’t have made it to us”, Trask said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-tulsi-gabbard





Potentially related

Sony Hackers Flash Disturbing New Warning on Staffers’ Computers

December 11, 2014

Amy Pascal on Whether She's So Damaged She Can No Longer Lead Sony (Exclusive)

A group purporting to be the Guardians of Peace or #GOP sent a new warning to Sony Pictures Thursday, causing an ominous message to flash across employee computer screens, an individual familiar with the situation tells TheWrap.

This is the fourth known time the #GOP has contacted the studio. The group previously accessed dozens of Sony employee computer screens in late November, displaying a similarly ominous image when staff tried to log in for work. See a screenshot here.

Even more frightening than the menacing images, on December 5 an email was sent threatening the well-being of employees and their families.

http://www.thewrap.com/sony-hackers-...ers-exclusive/



North Korea could respond to a DEVASTATING Donald Trump attack using 'HACKED war plans'

NORTH Korea's potential responses to a devastating attack from Donald Trump have been examined by a former nuclear strategist for the Pentagon who has warned the US against giving kim Jong-un a “bloody nose”.

By Joseph Carey
Sat, Jan 13, 2018

Van Jackson has a history of bracing America for North Korean attacks after spending years “figuring out how to prevent or overcome future attacks”.
The defence expert analysed the available options to the despot leader in the event of an attack.
He explained: “If the United States attacked a North Korean missile site, Kim’s immediate challenge would be trying to determine in real time whether the United States just launched a full-blown war.
“Keeping in mind that North Korean hackers stole alliance war plans last year, Kim will look for specific indicators to quickly render this judgment.”

[Brian4Liberty]

...This leads my inner software engineer to wonder how their systems are designed, that a mere changing of the guard could lead to this sort of result. The only other possibility is that the man who set this fiasco into motion did so with knowledge and intent, in which case he should spend many years in Leavenworth doing the rocks thing. From a GUI design standpoint, there should be at least three levels of confirmation, properly formatted, through which one must traverse before such messages go out into the wild. Proper design and implementation of such a filter is not particularly difficult. If it is missing, some very serious questions should arise. If not, well...

The excuses they are pushing don't make any sense, but that is not unusual when officials are engaged in CYA. The scenario I imagined when I first heard the story was a test gone bad. A situation where they thought they were doing it in a test environment and accidentally some portion was executed in production.

I remember one of my first experiences with Indian programmers. They used the same passwords in all environments (dev, testing environments, production). They hard coded passwords in programs. They used no source control at all. Not hard to see how easy that would be to go wrong. Not saying that this system was outsourced to an Indian company, but for tests to accidentally go against production is plausible.

...I will say one other thing about such systems: I cannot for the life of me imagine that such a message could be sent without alerts popping up in splash screens on every terminal in the facility in question. I further cannot imagine that such messages would not show up at DoD and possibly the White House itself.
...

That this went on for 37 minutes reeks either of malicious intent, or bottomless incompetence. I am more inclined at this time toward the former.

It will be very interesting to see how Trump responds to this, materially speaking.

Judging by some of the leftist talking points this morning, if this was intentional, the intent may have been to get a reaction from Trump, and push the "Trump is unstable" ploy. They are pushing that anyway when discussing this. Paraphrase: "This just highlights how dangerous it is to have an unstable President".

Wouldn't be surprised to hear a report this week from some anonymous source that Trump wanted to fire missiles in response and they had to stop him. That would be a media/leftist dream.

[goldenequity]

A key question 4 me:
Was this a 'local only' (just Hawaii) alert?
if not
Was this a 'Federal' alert.

If 'local' then I can see a screw up (malicious) as possible.
If a Federal alert, then it would have to go thru the 5-stage filter (or whatever).
and
If a Federal alert, then.. Why wasn't/didn't it trigger for Continental US as well?

[Brian4Liberty]

A key question 4 me:
Was this a 'local only' (just Hawaii) alert?
if not
Was this a 'Federal' alert.

If 'local' then I can see a screw up (malicious) as possible.
If a Federal alert, then it would have to go thru the 5-stage filter (or whatever).
and
If a Federal alert, then.. Why wasn't/didn't it trigger for Continental US as well?

It could have been just the local texting alert system that was "accidentally" set off.

[pcosmar]

Not sure what is sadder.
The fact that a bogus alert happened,, or the fact that everyone responded. (they believed it)

[Anti Federalist]

And what is the problem with that?

Assuming you had no reason not to believe that an inbound nuclear warhead was about impact near you?

Seems as good of a "shelter of last resort" as any.

[nikcers]

And what is the problem with that?

Assuming you had no reason not to believe that an inbound nuclear warhead was about impact near you?

Seems as good of a "shelter of last resort" as any.

I dunno death might be preferable to "surviving". I think making light of people doing what they can to survive is terrible though.

[osan]

The excuses they are pushing don't make any sense, but that is not unusual when officials are engaged in CYA. The scenario I imagined when I first heard the story was a test gone bad. A situation where they thought they were doing it in a test environment and accidentally some portion was executed in production.

I trust you know there is virtually zero chance of this happening. Even if done in a production environment as a live test, the messages going out would go to a simulator, which is little more than the bit-bucket. That way, the messages that would be otherwise sent to systems that would broadcast them to the world can be intercepted, verified, and validated as proper in format, content, and target distribution.

Prior to executing such a test, which would most likely be conducted at 2AM or thereabouts, the target system - the dummy/simulator/bit-bucket would be confirmed by multiple operators as being the sole target to which messages are going. With something like this, there can be no $#@!ing around. I've been top-dog on a large number of major test initiatives for various large OSSes (Operations Support Systems). There was no making mistakes of the sort I've described. This is trebly the case for live testing of something like early warning systems for what I assume are very obvious reasons.

There are two major reasons for testing such systems: to verify and validate function and do the same with operations training. The former tests the actual system, the latter the people who are to use it. If you are testing the software, generally speaking you do it in a test environment, wholly segregated from any live avenue. If you are testing the crew's abilities, you send dummy messages over the live system at 2AM with many eyes on what actually goes into the wild, with fast-response, single-button contingency plans in place for when something goes wholly awry, as was the case here. If a TINAD message (This Is Not A Drill) goes out by mistake, a single button is all that is necessary to make the proper amends.

This brand of testing is all about contingency planning for when things go wrong in the live environment. Those plans were not in evidence here, which means either they don't exist or they were consciously left at the curb. Either way, I'd say there are some rather thorny questions that need to be answered and warm bodies that need to go to the military barracks for a very long time.

Imagine if someone had committed suicide in fear or despair because of this reckless act? This cannot be tolerated in any measure and IMO the treatments need to be draconian, applied at the highest levels possible.

I remember one of my first experiences with Indian programmers. They used the same passwords in all environments (dev, testing environments, production). They hard coded passwords in programs. They used no source control at all. Not hard to see how easy that would be to go wrong. Not saying that this system was outsourced to an Indian company, but for tests to accidentally go against production is plausible.

I never permitted outsourcing whenever I held that authority, which was not often. However, I did have some measure of success in persuading decision-makers not to hand the life-blood of their operations over to strangers whose loyalties and integrity are questionable at best.

Judging by some of the leftist talking points this morning, if this was intentional, the intent may have been to get a reaction from Trump, and push the "Trump is unstable" ploy. They are pushing that anyway when discussing this. Paraphrase: "This just highlights how dangerous it is to have an unstable President".

Perhaps, but I would not be able to accept this at least until a plausible command source were identified. Who has the power to make this happen and what benefit might they derive from it?

That said, I still find it unlikely because the payoff remains in deep question. The risk to payoff ratio seems very high to me. Not only is a ploy such as this unlikely to make any net hay, the wake leaves someone, somewhere having to answer a host of rather pointed questions.

Wouldn't be surprised to hear a report this week from some anonymous source that Trump wanted to fire missiles in response and they had to stop him. That would be a media/leftist dream.

Now THAT I find plausible. We will see, soon enough.

[osan]

Not sure what is sadder.
The fact that a bogus alert happened,, or the fact that everyone responded. (they believed it)

Well shoot, what would have people do? Yes yes, government cannot be trusted to the door - we all know that, but their $#@! ups have never before been of such a nature as this. Even where the prognosis is hopeless, people scramble to survive. I cannot blame them a whit for doing what they did. Can you imagine what it must have been like? In the wake of this, I'd be hell bent to go hunting.

Any clues as to the general response to this? My fear is that the sheep will bleat up a storm and go back to grazing.

[Brian4Liberty]

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..."

Hawaii missile alert: How one employee 'pushed the wrong button' and caused a wave of panic

Shortly after 8 a.m. local time Saturday morning, an employee at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency settled in at the start of his shift. Among his duties that day was to initiate an internal test of the emergency missile warning system: essentially, to practice sending an emergency alert to the public without actually sending it to the public.

It was a drill the agency had started with some regularity in November — around the time Hawaii reinstated its Cold War-era nuclear warning sirens amid growing fears of an attack by North Korea — and so, while the tests were not yet routine enough to be predictable, they were not entirely new either, according to an agency spokesman.

Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii emergency employee initiated the internal test, according to a timeline released by the state. From a drop-down menu on a computer program, he saw two options: "Test missile alert" and "Missile alert." He was supposed to choose the former; as much of the world now knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a real-life missile alert.

"In this case, the operator selected the wrong menu option," HEMA spokesman Richard Rapoza told The Washington Post on Sunday.
...
Part of what worsened the situation Saturday was that there was no system in place at the state emergency agency for correcting the error, Rapoza said. The state agency had standing permission through FEMA to use civil warning systems to send out the missile alert — but not to send out a subsequent false alarm alert, he said.
...
More: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...114-story.html

The motive of the "operator" will never be known, unless they are foolish enough to get caught on tape discussing their motivation.

[timosman]

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..."



The motive of the "operator" will never be known, unless they are foolish enough to get caught on tape discussing their motivation.

and the option to send a live alert did not require confirmation?

[Jan2017]

And what is the problem with that?

Assuming you had no reason not to believe that an inbound nuclear warhead was about impact near you?

Seems as good of a "shelter of last resort" as any.

Of course. People were taking this incoming missile alert seriously, running into shelters as well while sirens going off.

fwiw, one Hiroshima survivor who touched nothing but just walked many miles to her family home witnessed screaming people jumping off bridges into water or drinking water in panic and instantly dying by her account- although another had dived into an indoor swimming pool and was underwater at the instant of detonation and got out - he survived to tell his account as well, with burned skin - but classmates at the side of the pool at the city college did not.

[Brian4Liberty]

and the option to send a live alert did not require confirmation?

If we believe the official account, then apparently no confirmation required. Probably by request of some know-it-all bureaucrat. The user is always right.

[pcosmar]

Panic based media.. has been prepping folks.

It is just sad,, on many levels.

Sad that anyone would believe it.
Sad that someone would do it.

sad that there was an infinitesimally small chance that it could possibly be true.

and stupid.

Come on.. You all are some of the best minds on the web.
Do any of you seriously believe Kim*** would seriously waste his one and only nuke (assuming one works) on Hawaii ? Just for lulz?
and that assuming it could actually make it that far..

Seriously

[goldenequity]

(while watching back-to-back episodes of Malcom in the middle..)
"He pushed the actual button instead of the test button"

Alex Witt @AlexWitt
Emergency Administrator Vern Miyagi explains Hawaii's false alarm:
http://www.msnbc.com/weekends-with-a...-1136922179660
(wax on, wax off... Mr. Miyagi. srsly? ya gotta listen to the MSNBC vid. hahaha)

[Anti Federalist]

Panic based media.. has been prepping folks.

It is just sad,, on many levels.

Sad that anyone would believe it.
Sad that someone would do it.

sad that there was an infinitesimally small chance that it could possibly be true.

and stupid.

Come on.. You all are some of the best minds on the web.
Do any of you seriously believe Kim*** would seriously waste his one and only nuke (assuming one works) on Hawaii ? Just for lulz?
and that assuming it could actually make it that far..

Seriously

We don't Pete.

But "we" are a tiny minority.

The vast, vast, vast majority of people have been steeped in "trust and obey authority under all circumstances".

So if "authority" blares through every single electronic communication outlet with a "HIT THE DIRT! INBOUND MISSILES! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" message, the great vast majority of people are going to believe it and react accordingly, which is to say: "when in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout".

And they will do it again and again and again, no matter how often "authority" is wrong.

All I have to do to prove that is point at the "Class Five Killstorm" hysteria that gets spun up and out of control every time a hurricane or winter storm spools up.

[pcosmar]

We don't Pete.

But "we" are a tiny minority.

The vast, vast, vast majority of people have been steeped in "trust and obey authority under all circumstances".

So if "authority" blares through every single electronic communication outlet with a "HIT THE DIRT! INBOUND MISSILES! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" message, the great vast majority of people are going to believe it and react accordingly, which is to say: "when in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout".

And they will do it again and again and again, no matter how often "authority" is wrong.

All I have to do to prove that is point at the "Class Five Killstorm" hysteria that gets spun up and out of control every time a hurricane or winter storm spools up.

Chicken Little Syndrome..
but I thought most people grew out of that.

[Pauls' Revere]

https://nypost.com/2018/01/14/worker...t-re-assigned/

The Hawaii public employee who plunged the state into chaos by accidentally sending out an incoming-missile emergency alert Saturday has been re-assigned, according to reports.

The unnamed emergency-department worker will not be fired because he made an honest mistake, said Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman Richard Rapoza to the Washington Post.

“Part of the problem was it was too easy — for anyone — to make such a big mistake,” Rapoza said. “We have to make sure that we’re not looking for retribution, but we should be fixing the problems in the system. … I know that it’s a very, very difficult situation for him.”

The agency has already put in place new safeguards to prevent such a misfire — including a “cancel” button that will immediately send out corrective alerts when an erroneous warning is issued, officials said Sunday.

[AZJoe]

[timosman]

The agency has already put in place new safeguards to prevent such a misfire — including a “cancel” button that will immediately send out corrective alerts when an erroneous warning is issued, officials said Sunday.

Impressive.

[Swordsmyth]

https://nypost.com/2018/01/14/worker...t-re-assigned/

The Hawaii public employee who plunged the state into chaos by accidentally sending out an incoming-missile emergency alert Saturday has been re-assigned, according to reports.

Whatever happened to the concept of "FIRED", why do they always get "re-assigned"?

[timosman]

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018...puter-screens/

[Dark_Horse_Rider]

Wish someone had video of Jim Carey or Jamie Lee Curtis or any other virtue signaling Hollywood twit running for cover. . .

They were pissed in their TWIT-turd posts, blaming the president cause they no longer feel safe to lounge around on stolen property

[RJB]

Whatever happened to the concept of "FIRED", why do they always get "re-assigned"?

Maybe he's transgender and is getting reassignment surgery?

[shakey1]

From my perspective, all a f'ing accident waiting to happen... whoever is perpetrating this $hit is playing with fire.

[FunkBuddha]

Reading the posts on Reddit from the people in Hawaii was depressing. Maybe it's just the type of people that post on reddit, but people's readiness to just curl up with their family and die just goes to show how we've lost our resilience as a people.

[RJB]

Reading the posts on Reddit from the people in Hawaii was depressing. Maybe it's just the type of people that post on reddit, but people's readiness to just curl up with their family and die just goes to show how we've lost our resilience as a people.

There seems to be a belief that if an A-bomb goes off within a few hundred miles of you, you might as well kill yourself for fear of radiation. People around Hiroshima and Nagasaki rebuilt their cities and went on with life.

Granted radiation is no fun, but neither are the SJWs on the internet and I am still alive.

[timosman]

There seems to be a belief that if an A-bomb goes off within a few hundred miles of you, you might as well kill yourself for fear of radiation. People around Hiroshima and Nagasaki rebuilt their cities and went on with life.

Granted radiation is no fun, but neither are the SJWs on the internet and I am still alive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_Site 65 miles from Las Vegas, over 100 tests.

[RJB]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_Site 65 miles from Las Vegas, over 100 tests.

Whoa. There were 7 between 1991 - '92.