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Hackers Rack Up $12,000 Bill on Homeland Security Phones

Department of Homeland Security Can't Secure Own Voicemail SystemWe never miss an opportunity to remind you to secure the devices you rely on at home, things like your wireless Internet connection or your e-mail password. Sometimes, though, we take for granted that government officials are doing the same. That, unfortunately, isn't always the case. At least, it isn't when it comes to FEMA, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, which recently discovered its phone systems had been accessed by an outsider who used them to make calls to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, among other places.

Embarrassed FEMA officials aren't sharing many details, but apparently its phone systems were left unsecured after a recent voicemail upgrade. This allowed an outsider to dial in, access the phone system system, and then place outgoing calls to wherever he or she liked. A total of $12,000-worth of calls were placed total to a number of countries in the Middle East and southern Asia before the hole was discovered and closed, all because someone probably forgot to put a password on somewhere. You, at least, know better when it comes to securing your own stuff -- right? [From: CBS News]


FEMA: Don't Worry About National SMS Alert System, We're On IT

The FCC has already given its stamp of approval on a system to modernize the US's ages-old emergency broadcast infrastructure, relying largely on voluntary participation by the nation's wireless carriers to help get the word out to their subscribers in the event of a crisis.

Left open, though, was the question of exactly who would be responsible for taking the reigns at the federal level, managing the system and overseeing alerts. After some initial concern that it didn't have the necessary legal authority to manage the system during non-emergencies, FEMA has finally taken the bull by the horns and thrown its hat in the ring to get the infrastructure in place.

The agency's first responsibility will be to develop and publish a protocol for the alerts -- something it hopes to have accomplished in the next one to two months -- with public availability of the production system coming in 12 to 18 months.

Facebook Trumps Media and Emergency Services During Disasters

Facebook Trumps Media, Emergency Services During DisastersThere's a disaster somewhere; homes are burning, tornadoes are spinning, a shooter is on the loose, flooding is rampant -- something like that. Where do you turn? Most would click on the local news and sit through the commercials hoping for an update. Others would turn on the radio and wait for an emergency broadcast to tell them what they need to know. More and more people, however, are turning to online services like Facebook, and according to researchers they are the ones who are keeping most informed.

The report found that, in the wake of disasters like last October's fires in Southern California and the Virginia Tech Shootings, which happened a year ago last month, bloggers, Twitterers, and Facebookers are reporting information about the emergencies more quickly and more efficiently than the local media. And, it's without the "lowest common denominator" spin that most media can fall into, zooming in on celebrity homes ablaze during the fires rather than discussing evacuation information, or endlessly repeating information about the shooter in the VT massacre instead of helping victims recover.

But, it seems, emergency services are starting to get the hang of things. The Red Cross took a hint from some amateur wildfire reporters and is now using Twitter to post information about emergencies. We're hoping FEMA maybe thinks about using Google Maps during the next emergency, which might just enable faster routing of emergency supplies to where they're needed.

Of course, none of these claims take into account power failures and Internet outages that occur as a result of these disasters. [Source: Daily Telegraph]

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