Somebody hacked into Dallas’s Office of Emergency Management late Friday and activated all 156 sirens in the city, creating a headache for the city and for everybody who had to listen to the late-night blaring.
The city said in a statement Saturday it wasn’t sure who the hackers are, but officials said they know how it was done and that they believe the hacking came from the Dallas area.
Someone hacked Dallas tornado sirens last night – turning on all 156 of them near midnight.
— Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) April 8, 2017
Here's the city statement: pic.twitter.com/YQGXv4FIL6
The sirens sounded, well, annoying.
So, that must have been pleasant in the middle of night.
“This is yet another serious example of the need for us to upgrade and better safeguard our city’s technology infrastructure,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said, via the Dallas Morning News. “It’s a costly proposition, which is why every dollar of taxpayer money must be spent with critical needs such as this in mind. Making the necessary improvements is imperative for the safety of our citizens.”
According to the newspaper, city officials had to shut down the entire emergency alert system in order to silence the sirens. Which made the hacking an aggravating and a potentially unsafe situation for the city at the same time.