ICT Security-Sécurité PC et Internet

No one who’s used a long-running government website expects such things to be fancy — just functional. But there’s a limit to what can be tolerated, and I believe we’ve reached it with Hawaii’s emergency alert system, which is so dated that it would be hilarious if it hadn’t just caused a statewide panic. GeoCities ain’t got nothing on this.

Honolulu Civil Beat managed to get a screenshot, via Hawaii’s Office of the Governor, of the system used to launch emergency alerts like the one that went out on Saturday:

Look at that! Just a jumble of contextless plain links, with drills and tests heedlessly mixed in. It’s easy to see how this happened. We all click the wrong link now and then, but the consequence isn’t destabilizing an entire state. You can’t hit the back button on a million text messages and broadcast warnings.

You can see that at the top of the list a new entry: BMD False Alarm. That’s surely (let’s hope) a band-aid until this system gets dragged into the 21st century. Hell, even the turn of the century would be an improvement.

All you need is a bit of styling to perhaps put tests and real alerts in different columns and colors, in case your finger slips, telling all of Hawaii to pull over, find shelter and lay on the ground until further notice. Apparently there’s a confirmation popup that appears, which is a start. Want to bet it looks the same whether you’re doing a drill, text or real alert?

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/naivety-in-the-digital-age/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/cyber-security-the-weakest-link-in-the-security-chain-is-the-human/

Sicherheitslücke: Passwort für Raketenalarm stand monatelang im Internet

Der Fehlalarm wegen eines vermeintlichen Raketenangriffs aus Nordkorea hat ganz Hawaii in Panik versetzt. Nun zeigt sich: Das Passwort für das Warnsystem der Katastrophenschutz-Behörde war seit Monaten im Internet zu finden.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/naivety-in-the-digital-age/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/cyber-security-the-weakest-link-in-the-security-chain-is-the-human/

No sooner had we written up that fake missile alert in Hawaii than another fake missile alert was sent out, this time in Japan.

Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, published an apology:

NHK is apologizing after issuing a false alert that said North Korea had probably launched a missile and warned people in Japan to take cover.

The false message was sent in Japanese shortly before 7 PM local time on Tuesday. It went out through the public broadcaster’s Japanese apps and website.

A few minutes later, NHK corrected the wrong information. There are no reports of problems caused by the mistake. NHK says a switching error is to blame.

The incident comes just days after officials in the US state of Hawaii issued a false missile alarm and caused panic.

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/naivety-in-the-digital-age/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/cyber-security-the-weakest-link-in-the-security-chain-is-the-human/