[EAS] Code Red

[Bennett Kobb]

The Malwarebytes article states:

"To avoid confusion: CodeRED is not the same as the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is the federal government-managed emergency notifications system. The CodeRED emergency notification system is a voluntary program where residents can sign up to receive notifications and emergency alerts affecting the city they live in."

As is typical of such coverage, that's likely not the whole story.

Alerting authorities use CodeRED to access FEMA IPAWS to issue public alerts by EAS and Wireless Emergency Alerts. Jurisdictions may also use apps like CodeRED to send notifications like texts, emails, "Reverse 911" etc. to people who have signed up for those.

If the alerting software or its associated cloud are compromised, that can affect ability to send to IPAWS. Fortunately there are lots of competitors to CodeRED. Some authorities are reportedly looking to switch vendors.

CodeRED for its part emphasized that the problem was in its "legacy" system and they have a new system that's better. That might be a tough sell for some.

Bennett Kobb
KZSM-LP
San Marcos TX

- - -

On Dec 2, 2025, at 12:18 PM, Gregory Muir engineering at mt.net> wrote:

Don't know if anyone saw this note regarding the Code Red system.  The local law enforcement agency here has abandoned their system as is being seen with others as well.  As for its function around here it has had noticeable intermittent problems when used.  I feel that part of it has been agency training issues leading to an incomplete understanding about what to do when called on.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/11/millions-at-risk-after-nationwide-codered-alert-system-outage-and-data-breach

Greg

__________________________________________________________
The EAS Forum Discussion List is hosted by the BWWG (Broadcast Warning Working Group). http://eas.radiolists.net
Please invite your friends to join our Forum! The sign up is at: https://lists.radiolists.net/mailman/listinfo/eas
___________________________________________________________