All 156 Tornado Sirens In Dallas Triggered By Hacker Overnight, City Says

DALLAS, TX — Officials on Saturday blamed a hacker for setting off the network of more than 150 emergency outdoor sirens normally activated to alert of tornadoes and other weather emergencies, according to media reports.

The city's 156 emergency sirens blared for an hour and half overnight, causing widespread concern on social media and an onslaught of 911 calls from worried residents. Rocky Vaz, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management, said engineers determined an unidentified hacker in the Dallas area is responsible, but has not been located.

The hacker tricked the system to send repeat signals activating each siren 60 times during the night, Vaz said, according to USA Today. The sirens started wailing at 11:42 p.m. Friday and continued until 1:17 a.m. Saturday.

According to city officials, the numerous 911 calls as a result of the blaring sirens clogged up the system. At one point, 911 calls were backed up for six minutes instead of the normal 10-second waiting period, USA Today reported. All told, emergency dispatchers were bombarded with more than 4,400 calls between 11:30 p.m. Friday and 3 am. Saturday, double the volume of calls for a normal eight-hour overnight period, the newspaper reported.

In a prepared statement, Mayor Mike Rawlings categorized the hack as an attack on the city's emergency notification system, and law enforcement officials will "find and prosecute whomever is responsible."

"This is yet another serious example of the need for us to upgrade and better safeguard our city's technology infrastructure," the mayor wrote on Facebook. "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."

Vaz said he expects the emergency siren system is expected to be fully operational by Monday afternoon. But he said locating the person responsible "is going to be a very long process if we do find out who actually did it," he told the newspaper. The Federal Communication Commission is helping in the investigation, he added.

>>> Read the full story at USA Today

Photo credit: Daniel Schwen via WikiMedia Commons