False Emergency Alert Sent to Thousands of Phones in Brazil After Suspected Hack
Authorities said 10 alerts were tracked nationwide as Brazil worked to restore the disabled warning platform after the intrusion.
- On Saturday, cell phones across Brazil received an unauthorized 'Extreme Alert' message affecting residents in Paraná, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro, sparking widespread confusion.
- The Regional Development Ministry and federal police are investigating the intrusion, believed to result from a hacker attack. Authorities took The Civil Defense Alert platform offline at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.
- Devices displayed 'misantropi4,' a leetspeak variation of the Portuguese word 'misantropia' translating to 'misanthropy,' sent via the Cellbroadcast tool to millions of users.
- National Secretary of Protection and Civil Defense Wolnei Wolff reported 10 alerts were tracked across various Brazilian states. The National Telecommunications Agency joined the investigation.
- The Federal Government is working to restore the platform, though no timeline has been provided for when the system will return online.
64 Articles
64 Articles
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Millions of Brazilians Receive Fake Emergency Alert as Suspected Hack Disrupts National Warning System
Millions of Brazilians received a fake emergency alert containing the word "misanthropy" after a suspected cyberattack disrupted the country's civil defense warning system.
Hackers hijacked Brazil's emergency alert system and sent 'misanthropy' to millions of phones
Hackers breached Brazil’s national civil defense alert system overnight, sending fake “Extreme Alert” notifications containing the word “misantropi4” to millions of mobile phones across at least seven states. The Civil Defense Alert platform was taken offline at 1:30 am on Saturday after the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development confirmed the intrusion. The Federal Police […] This story continues at The Next Web
Approximately 30 million people in Brazil erroneously received emergency messages through the national civil protection system, after it was apparently compromised on Friday night by Saturday.
By Mariana Catacci, CNN Brazil An unauthorized alert with a mysterious message that was sent to cell phones in several states of Brazil on Saturday morning is suspected to be hacker work, the Brazilian government reported. The devices were lit with the word “misantropi4”, an alphanumeric script of the Portuguese word “misanthropy”, which translates into “misanthropy” (misanthropic). The last letter “a” was replaced by the number “4”, a practice …
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