The BBC is reporting that the U.S. Emergency Alerting System, which has been set up to provide information in the event of a national emergency, is vulnerable to hacking. In fact, two stations, a TV station in Montana and a radio station in Michigan, were hacked so that these stations provided information about a nonexistent zombie apocalypse. The message broadcast stated:
Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living. Follow the messages onscreen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
Most likely this message was the work of people who like a good prank, but it exposed a fundamental weakness in the Emergency Alerting System which needs to be corrected. According to the BBC:
Lead researcher Mike Davis said the system needed to be re-engineered.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
Lets hope that they actually do so because someone hacking into the Emergency Alerting System with a false alert that is more credible than zombies could cause widespread panic, and could cause real harm.
There was no information in the BBC article whether the people doing the hacking were actually apprehended, and if so, whether they were prosecuted.