Pirate radio: Signal spoof set off Dallas emergency sirens, not network hack

Enlarge / A siren similar to the type set off by a "hacker" in Dallas last weekend. (credit: Getty Images/CPCollinsPhotography)

Last Friday night, as midnight approached, someone managed to trigger the emergency siren system used by the city of Dallas for tornado warnings and other emergencies. And that someone managed to keep the alarms in action for 95 minutes-even after emergency services workers shut them off. The entire system had to be shut down.

Dallas officials initially blamed "a hack" for causing the midnight siren escapade-a statement that was initially interpreted as some sort of network intrusion into Dallas' emergency services computer systems. But in a statement issued yesterday, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax clarified the cause, saying that the "hack" used a radio signal that spoofed the system used to control the siren network. He would not go into details. "I don't want someone to understand how it was done so that they could try to do it again," Broadnax said. "It was not a system software issue, it was a radio issue."

Broadnax said that measures had been taken to prevent the incident from happening again, but he would not say what those measures were.

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