The National Secretariat for Civil Protection and Defense, linked to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development (MIDR), reported that it has already called the Federal Police to investigate the authorship and extent of the which sent a false notification to several regions of the country.
The main line of investigation points to a coordinated hacker attack. The Civil Defense Alert system’s shipping platform was taken offline preventively and the secretariat said, in a note, that works to restart the system as quickly as possible“when all safety conditions are reestablished”.
This morning, around 1:30 am, a sound notification was sent to the population’s cell phones by the Civil Defense system in the “extreme alert” category — normally reserved for imminent natural disasters. In addition to a loud siren, the text message contained only the word “” – a term that means aversion or hatred towards humanity.
How the system works
The Civil Defense system was created to send real disaster alerts in areas of imminent risksuch as in the case of flooding or other extreme weather events that require the population to be alerted. In September last year, a series of tests were carried out during system implementation.
To receive messages, it is not necessary to register in advance. Alerts are sent depending on cell phone signal coverage on devices compatible with 4G and 5G networks.
The extreme alert is considered by Civil Defense to be the most serious. As it is considered an immediate emergency, the alarm will sound even if the device is in silent mode.
