Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Hackers Broadcast Zombie Apocalypse Alert on US TV

Related NewsU.S. Emergency Alerting Systems Vulnerable to Remote Attack

Related NewsU.S. Emergency Alerting Systems Vulnerable to Remote Attack

LOS ANGELES – Hackers caused a bizarre alert in the US state of Montana by broadcasting a warning about zombies attacking the living, local television channels said Tuesday.

The apocalyptic warning interrupted programming via the Emergency Alert System, normally used for real catastrophes such as extreme weather, or even a direct message from the US president in the case of a national crisis.

Zombie Alert SignThe message was preceded by a buzzing noise typical of such broadcasts, before a voice intoned: “Civilian authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves, and attacking the living.

“Follow the messages on screen, that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt or apprehend these bodies, as they are considered extremely dangerous,” it added.

“This warning applies to all areas receiving this broadcast. This station will now cease transmission, so please use your battery powered radio” to hear updates.

The warning broke into regular programming Monday evening on at least four local television stations, according to Cynthia Thompson, station manager at ABC10-CW5.

“It has been determined that a ‘back door’ attack allowed the hacker to access the security of the EAS equipment,” she said in an online statement, adding that WNMU-TV 13 at Northern Michigan University was also hacked.

“ABC 10-CW 5 will continue to work with federal and state agencies, including law enforcement and security experts, on the investigation of this incident.”

Heath Heggem, news director at KRTV/KXLH, told AFP: “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.”

A spokesman for the Great Falls Police Department said some people had called, but there was no cause for alarm.

“We had four calls checking to see if it was true. And then I thought, ‘Wait. What if?'” Sorensen told the Great Falls Tribune, adding, reassuringly: “There have been no sightings of dead bodies rising from the ground.”

Related Reading: U.S. Emergency Alerting Systems Vulnerable to Remote Attack

Security Test: Are You Ready For the Zombie Apocalypse?

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.

Cybercrime

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Application Security

PayPal is alerting roughly 35,000 individuals that their accounts have been targeted in a credential stuffing campaign.

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...