[EAS] Dallas warning sirens hacked - maybe

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

The ever-browsable Ars Technica has an item on the Dallas Incident today.  <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/dallas-siren-hack-used-radio-signals-to-spoof-alarm-says-city-manager/>

Editor Sean Gallagher quotes the Dallas City Manager as distinguishing between a "hack" and a spoofing attack on the radio system.  "It was not a system software issue, it was a radio issue."  I'm sure that distinction matters to the city IT department, but it seems like a very narrow understanding of the idea of hackage.  Wonder whether he would consider a social engineering / phishing enabled intrusion on the city phone system to be a "hack"?

Anyway, the City Manager's faith in security by obscurity seems unwavering.  "I don't want someone to understand how it was done so that they could try to do it again," says T.C. Broadnax, seemingly having overlooked the glaring fact that that ship has already sailed.  (OK, it's landlocked Dallas, so make that "that horse is already out of the barn.")

Meanwhile seemingly lost in all the kerfuffle is the salient point that the sirens all sounded but there was no mass disorder, no panic.  As usual the public has proven less delicate than folks sometimes imagine.

Art

PS - IMHO, 'Ars' is pretty much what WIRED would be if it didn't obsess over style.  If you don't follow their website or RSS feed, I recommend it.