EAS codes can be found at https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...mc=true&node=pt47.1.11&rgn=div5#se47.1.11_145

That being said, the offender offender can be prosecuted under

§11.45 Prohibition of false or deceptive EAS transmissions.
No person may transmit or cause to transmit the EAS codes or Attention Signal, or a recording or simulation thereof, in any circumstance other than in an actual National, State or Local Area emergency or authorized test of the EAS, or as specified in §10.520(d) of this chapter.

[81 FR 75727, Nov. 1, 2016]

 

I'd say Hawaii got a good test. I'd also say they failed the test. Better to fail a test than an actual event. Whether they correct problems or not, time will tell.

 

I think it shows how apathetic and un-prepared we are. The chances of nuclear attack has never been greater......and will get much worse. We should make preparations.

 

The chances of nuclear attack has never been greater......and will get much worse.

MAD ... mutually assured destruction ... is no longer a viable preventative measure?

I don't know. It was nice of the U.S. to jumpstart their nuclear program.

 

In my opinion only......the chance of an all out attack from say russia or china is slim....unless war between us. So yes in a mad context. But of course that is not the danger is it. It might be a few missiles or something smuggled in. I doubt any nation would admit to hitting us with nuc. But some men would love the legacy of hitting the US with a nuc.

I don't think we prepare for bio or chem either.

 

I've been watching things that some people didn't know that occurred During WWII Hitler used some tactics like laying Mines with U-boats and assassins coming ashore in rafts to cripple our War manufacturing and shipping.

I think the U.S. has some Nukes you can shoot from Artillery Guns, in such a case would cripple any foreign leader if they chose to make the first strike on US soil.

Who knows what else we could launch besides an Air Strike with Stealth Bombers and smart bombs.

kv

 

North Korea will push the envelope. If the U.S. has the wherewithall to counter that push remains to be seen.

Back on topic,

The person who "caused" the Hawaiian false alert has been reassigned to other duties. I'm betting the Federal Government won't prosecute.

 

North Korea will push the envelope. If the U.S. has the wherewithall to counter that push remains to be seen.

Back on topic,

The person who "caused" the Hawaiian false alert has been reassigned to other duties. I'm betting the Federal Government won't prosecute.

There is nothing to prosecute if it was just a screw-up. I'm not surprised at all this happened with the system they used and it could happen to anyone with this duty. The problem was they practiced too much on a system that allowed for learned patterned behaviors to default to correct for any choice in the EAS menu selection. If you clicked Test or Alert the confirmation response was exactly the same. This means you don't really think about the selection when it asks for confirmation. They also didn't have a cancellation period or even a automatic method to stop the messaging even it you recognized a screw-up the second you pressed the wrong menu.

Visual clues also work for good and bad options on computer screens. Background changes at important decisions point help

The normal background for various options.

Test

Alert

Spoiler

 

North Korea will push the envelope. If the U.S. has the wherewithall to counter that push remains to be seen.

Back on topic,

The person who "caused" the Hawaiian false alert has been reassigned to other duties. I'm betting the Federal Government won't prosecute.

On the subject of making a "faux pax" over a radio broadcast, back in 2008 there was a radio talk show host (Charles Karrel on KGO) who accidentally mouthed off some potty language, profanity, and finally dropped the "F-Bomb" all while on the air.

It happened during a commercial break and he thought his mike was turned off. However the mike was turned on and everything went out to a listening audience of nearly 15 million. The broadcast has a 7 second delay and there is a censor feature to delete anything that shouldn't go out and the mike was supposed to be turned off during a commercial. However, the program engineer also took a restroom break (and he forgot to turn off the mike) so he wasn't around to activate the censor feature.

Soon after the FCC got wind of the incident, both the host and the engineer got their "Walkin' Papers".

Here's the whole story:
www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/KGO-DJ-Karel-loses-his-job-3182724.php

 

On the subject of making a "faux pax" over a radio broadcast, back in 2008 there was a radio talk show host (Charles Karrel on KGO) who accidentally mouthed off some potty language, profanity, and finally dropped the "F-Bomb" all while on the air.

It happened during a commercial break and he thought his mike was turned off. However the mike was turned on and everything went out to a listening audience of nearly 15 million. The broadcast has a 7 second delay and there is a censor feature to delete anything that shouldn't go out and the mike was supposed to be turned off during a commercial. However, the program engineer also took a restroom break (and he forgot to turn off the mike) so he wasn't around to activate the censor feature.

Soon after the FCC got wind of the incident, both the host and the engineer got their "Walkin' Papers".

Here's the whole story:
www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/KGO-DJ-Karel-loses-his-job-3182724.php

I liked to listen to Karel and Dr. Bill Wattenburg on KGO but Karel was a hand-grenade with a pulled pin waiting to explode by pushing the limits daily. I was surprised he lasted as long as he did.

The leadership in Hawaii EMA should be fired for total ineptness in designing procedures and training that made it far too easy for an operator to screw-up the EAS WEA testing..
https://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/files/2017/11/HI-EMA-PUBLIC-BMP-working-brief-NOV-2017.pdf

50,000 to 120,000 trauma and burn casualties together with nearly 18,000 fatalities • 15 to 30% of survivors exposed to initial radiation or fallout experience Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS)
...
The following message shall be transmitted on the EAS and WEA systems simultaneously and continuously until the threat has passed:

“The U.S. Pacific Command has detected a missile threat to Hawaii.
A missile may impact on land or sea within minutes.
This is not a drill.”

 

There is nothing to prosecute if it was just a screw-up. I'm not surprised at all this happened with the system they used and it could happen to anyone with this duty.

There are numerous federal agencies and state agencies that "can" activate the EAS. The point is the person in Hawaii did violate the law, but I doubt they will be prosecuted.

Why hasn't that happened before given the number of agencies involved? How accidental was the "activation"?

I find it humorous that two can be fired for violating FCC rules at a commercial radio station, yet, a careless person retains their job for a minor activation of a nuclear EAS alert. I suspect this wasn't a simple accidental activation of a switch.

This isn't a replay of the War of the Worlds ... although there are similarities. I haven't heard of any suicides because of this "faux pas."

 

There is nothing to prosecute if it was just a screw-up.

People are prosecuted and sent to prison all the time for just screw-ups. They are handed multimillion dollar judgments for just screw-ups.

 

On the subject of making a "faux pax" over a radio broadcast, back in 2008 there was a radio talk show host (Charles Karrel on KGO) who accidentally mouthed off some potty language, profanity, and finally dropped the "F-Bomb" all while on the air.

I almost never watched the Tonight show, but one of the very few times I did Johnny Carson dropped the F-bomb right in the middle of his monologue and no one seemed to take any notice. I don't recall when that was -- probably while I was in high school give or take so say sometime in the early 1980's. I was aware of the FCC rules at the time, so I don't think it would have been much earlier and it was before we moved out of the house I grew up in, which was 1985.

 

People are prosecuted and sent to prison all the time for just screw-ups. They are handed multimillion dollar judgments for just screw-ups.

The are sent to jail for criminal behaviors as defined by the law. So far there has been zero evidence here of that. This person was authorized to use and activate that EAS system. I fail to see why this person should be punished in a criminal context for the stupidity of the system designers and leadership.

 

https://japantoday.com/category/national/NHK-issues-false-alarm-about-missile-launch

TOKYO
Japanese public broadcaster NHK issued a false alarm on Tuesday saying North Korea appeared to have launched a missile and urging people to take shelter, but it managed to correct the error within minutes.
...
"This happened because equipment to send a news flash onto the Internet had been incorrectly operated. We are deeply sorry," an NHK announcer said on its 9:00 p.m. news program, bowing deeply in apology.

 

On the "Big island" of Hawaii, the EAS is routinely activated about once a year to warn residents about the risk of a volcanic eruption and lava flow:

In May of 2014, there was a huge lava flow from the Kilauea Volcano that required the evacuation of a thinly populated area about 5 miles long and the town of Pahoa was put on alert to prepare for a possible evacuation.

I heard on the news that the type of alert is selected from a drop down menu, so I wonder if someone accidentally clicked on "Missile Attack" instead of "Volcano"?

 

I heard on the news that the type of alert is selected from a drop down menu, so I wonder if someone accidentally clicked on "Missile Attack" instead of "Volcano"?

No, someone accidentally clicked on "Missile Attack" Alert instead of "Missile Attack" Test during a routine shift change EAS operational check.

DRILL PACOM was the correct selection, the person selected the PACOM (without the DRILL prefix) link.
Worst designed interface of all time?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...in-hawaii-take-a-look/?utm_term=.1c0a28df897a

 

The feds are involved now, so who knows how it will end.

Mod edit: snipped deleted quote

Why say something till you have something definitive to say. Speculating without investigation serves no useful purpose.

 

There may be plenty of blame to go around on this one, but the disposition of the employee who “caused” the event is not the major concern to me; the adoption of a faulty system is the major concern. I agree with @nsaspook

In the thread that was closed, I opined about this after watching the news conference when details of the system were first revealed and I commented :
↑
...how the %$@#! do you design a system like that? How does that get built and deployed?

and @WBahn responded
"Given that systems like this are usually thought up by people operating on emotion and good intentions and then implemented by the lowest bidder who quickly learns not to ask too many questions from people that haven't really thought through what they even want, it's real hard to get a decent system designed and deployed."

While that response may, in fact, be on point, it is unacceptable. That is, to the degree that it is an accurate description of how they got there, it is an unacceptable state of affairs.

We have, in my view, managed to develop some very sophisticated warning systems. Locally, these get tested in actual emergencies, such as active shooter incidents and they seem to constantly be evolving and improving. Terms like "shelter in place" and "get the h out as soon as you can" begin to have discriminable meaning to the public. We all see/hear tests of the EBS. Once in a while I see/hear EBS warnings for flash floods or Amber Alerts. I don't remember getting any false alarms ever. IOW they seem to work.

Here, it looks like we have a local (i.e. state) system, but one that also has truly international consequences. It has clear shortcomings in design. If I had evaluated that system and the procedures in place (two tests/shift, three shifts/day or whatever it actually was), I would have predicted with high likelihood that a false alarm would occur. Attention to human factors and understanding past performance as a predictor of future behavior, could only lead someone to that conclusion.

The shock may be to find out that, despite the potential consequences, the system was not offered for comment by those with SME on such systems (I don't have that SME). The aftershock may be to find out how many more with such flaws are out there.

So many of you are adept at designing electronics and programs, you can't have missed the lengths to which one must go to in order to anticipate the black swan - especially when the associated consequences and liabilities are substantial. In fact, given a large enough 'n' you can virtually count on seeing a black swan. This aspect of design necessitates input from others whose role is strictly evaluation - what was done in this case in that regard? I don't know but I feel very strongly that it was not enough because even I could see the huge flaws.

I have been a COR on very small items and have written statements of work. Those never went through on just what I wrote, they were touched and modified by maybe a dozen people with particular SME that would insert/remove/modify certain passages, and they would do so with an explanation - I got much better at writing a SOW.

In several cases I was called in to comment on some system or plan - not as part of a contract but as an end user. In one of these cases I was so incensed by what was planned, I outright lambasted the performers on both sides, using an analogy: "Look, you guys were called to fix a leaking roof. You come in and want to mow the lawn and when called out, you say that the lawn really needs mowing!" I remember that the slight admonishment I received for being "disrespectful" was buried in an avalanche of praise for pointing out the flaws. It had an impact.

In my opinion, the system that was deployed is/was horribly deficient and those deficiencies *could* have been uncovered through appropriate evaluation and it seems to me that the appropriate evaluation was simply not done.

 

EAS codes can be found at https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...mc=true&node=pt47.1.11&rgn=div5#se47.1.11_145

That being said, the offender offender can be prosecuted under

§11.45 Prohibition of false or deceptive EAS transmissions.
No person may transmit or cause to transmit the EAS codes or Attention Signal, or a recording or simulation thereof, in any circumstance other than in an actual National, State or Local Area emergency or authorized test of the EAS, or as specified in §10.520(d) of this chapter.

[81 FR 75727, Nov. 1, 2016]

JoeJester I say truly dangerous thing is ppl have been totally desensitized to alerts by stupid use of EAS for _Amber alerts_ and weather and like that! Sad as abducted or lost kids are and as dangerous as summer storms can sometimes be they are problems which are totally limited in scope which shouldn't be handled through system ppl count on for warning of large scale disaster! So it's like fable abt boy who cries wolf! Pretty soon no one notices!