This USA Today article landed in my inbox today:
A false alert that aired on two local TV stationswent through the same channels on which true emergencies are aired, raising questions and concerns of how the hoax occurred.
The hoax reached around 10 stations in Montana, Michigan, California, Utah and New Mexico, said Greg MacDonald, the CEO of Montana Broadcasters Association.
The alert featured a scrolling warning for various Montana counties and a voice-over claimed there were “dead bodies rising from the grave and attacking the living” and urged people to use caution.
“Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are extremely dangerous,” it said.
MacDonald said the FBI and the FCC are investigating the cases, and initial findings have officials believing the hoax originated somewhere overseas.
The Emergency Alert System is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters to provide the communications capability to the president to address the American public during a national emergency, according to the Federal Communication Commission’s website. It’s also used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information to specific areas.
Montana Television Network executive Jon Saunders has been telling inquiring journalists that Montana TV station
“KRTV along with several other stations across the country was subject to a cyber attack that intruded into our EAS system. We’re still investigating what happened.”
Whoever was behind this was apparently particular about which TV stations would broadcast the messages. Have a listen to them for yourself. I should warn you – they’re pretty darn freaky!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ispv-Oy_Tqg
The USA Today article continues:
Skip Walters, operations manager for Great Falls’ Cherry Creek Radio, found it odd that no one else rebroadcast the message. It never went through his radio station or any of the other Great Falls TV or radio stations.
“This all works on radio waves. How were they able to hack into KRTV with radio waves but only yards away, they couldn’t hack into KFBB?” asked Steve Keller, the radio program director.
The EAS message that struck KRTV and the Michigan stations also had the look and sound of a true alert. Each incident had a crawl on the TV alerting counties and a mechanically altered voice warning of “zombies attacking the living.”
As SOTT.net pointed out yesterday, it is not easy to access the Emergency Alert System, which is managed by the Dept. of Homeland Security. Yes, the same Dept. of Homeland Security that recently urged citizens to prepare for a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. This was just tongue-in-cheek, they reassured us, but coming as it did on top of all the other ‘just-joking-around’ messages from governments about the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’, I have to wonder if this ‘Zombie’ meme is being spread deliberately – in both subtle and not so subtle ways…
- In anticipation of plague outbreak? UK government has contingency plan for ‘Zombie Apocalypse’
- Security Firm to Hold Zombie Crisis Scenario
- Zombie ‘Theme Park’ Planned for Detroit’s Abandoned Streets
- Feds vs. Zombies: CDC officially denies ‘Zombie Apocalypse’
- US: “Zombie Apocalypse” campaign crashes website
Note that the EAS, until this ‘cyber-attack’, had never before been activated on a national scale.
Perhaps this then was a test?
For someone or some group to have done this and piped the message to particular stations across the country suggests to me that very high-level clearance, planning or access was required.
They’re now blaming ‘a foreign source’ for this ‘cyber-attack’, but whoever did it, this is another example of flicking the paranoia switch and inducing yet more hysteria in the U.S. population.