Saturday, March 14, 2020

Emergency Alert System Hacked in Texas


The Federal Bureau of Inquiry announced this afternoon that this morning’s emergency broadcast notice on Houston television stations was the result of an attack on the emergency broadcast system. According to Johnathan Quest, FBI spokesman: “The FBI has just started their investigation of the incident, but our initial finding is that the message was inserted into the system by an outside agency not connected with the US government.”

The following information was broadcast as a text message scrolling across Houston area television screens:

“The federal government was just ordered to release all illegal immigrants detained at the Houston Immigrant Detention Center due to four reported cases of COVID-19 in the confined population. The 250 people that will be released this afternoon have all been exposed to, or have tested positive for, COVID-19.”

Miriam Ferguson, the Director of the Texas Emergency Services Bureau (TESB), is responsible for the State implementation of the Emergency Broadcast System. She said that access to the computers that control the system is very closely restricted, but that they are connected to the Federal EBS network via the internet.

James P. Henderson, Director of the HIDC, confirmed that there are currently 250 people confined at the Center. “None of the current detainees is reporting any symptoms of upper respiratory related illnesses, much less COVID-19,” Henderson told reporters; “No detainees have been tested for COVID-19, but in light of today’s incident, I am ordering all detainees be tested for the disease. I will publicly report the results of all of the tests when I have them.”


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